Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) warned of the Electoral College’s “danger” to democracy during an appearance on CBS’ “Face The Nation” on Sunday. (You can watch a clip of Raskin’s comments below.)
Raskin, a member of the Jan. 6 committee that released its final report on Thursday, told Margaret Brennan that the Electoral College hasn’t sided with the results of the popular vote in the presidential election on a number of occasions and later referenced other countries who haven’t tuned into its concept.
“I think that the Electoral College now, which has given us five popular vote losers as president in our history, twice in this century alone, has become a danger – not just to democracy but to the American people,” the Maryland Democrat said.
“It was a danger on Jan. 6, there are so many curving byways and nooks and crannies in the Electoral College that there are opportunities for a lot of strategic mischief,” he continued. “We should elect the president the way we elect governors, senators, mayors, representatives, everybody else ― whoever gets the most votes wins.”
Raskin’s comments come after Congress passed reform for the Electoral Count Act on Friday in an effort to define that the vice president holds a ceremonial role while certifying the Electoral College vote. The reform also makes it harder for lawmakers to object to a state’s electors.
Raskin later told Brennan that the reform “doesn’t solve the fundamental problem” with the Electoral College.
“I’m for that, and that’s the very least we can do, and we must do. It’s necessary, but it’s not remotely sufficient,” Raskin said.
“You know, we spend hundreds of millions of dollars every year exporting American democracy to other countries, and the one thing they never come back to us with is the idea that ‘Oh, that Electoral College that you have, that’s so great, we think we’ll adopt that, too.’”