Assoc. Dean Amar Comments on Electoral College Reform for Chronicle
Associate Dean Vikram Amar commented for the San Francisco Chronicle on California's participation in the National Voter Interstate Compact, a plan to alter the current Electoral College system with one that effectively awards the presidency to the national popular vote winner. Amar played a key role in the formation of the plan, proposing and discussing its constitutionality in a series of essays including an article co-authored with his brother a decade ago. Under the plan, participating states would agree to cast their electoral votes to the presidential candidate winning the most votes nationwide, ensuring that the winner of the popular vote would be elected.
"It's about voter equality," Amar said. "If you don't have a national popular vote, people in some states have more say than people in other states." Currently, he said, swing states get "all the campaign promises and attention, and their votes [and perhaps those of voters in small states] are effectively worth more."
Vikram Amar, Associate Dean of Academic Affairs and Professor of Law with the UC Davis School of Law, is a national authority in the fields of constitutional law, civil procedure, criminal procedure, and remedies. His biweekly column for FindLaw.com, a leading provider of online legal information, centers on his expertise in constitutional law.