Tim Walz, Democratic vice presidential candidate, called for abolishing the electoral college system that has long been applied in US presidential elections.
“I think everyone knows that the electoral college needs to go away. We need a national popular vote. We need to win in York, Pennsylvania. We need to win in western Wisconsin. We need to win in Reno , Nevada state,” Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, vice presidential candidate of the Democratic Party, spoke at a meeting of sponsors in California on October 8.
He once made a similar statement at an event in Seattle, Washington state, admitting that he was “a fan of the national popular vote mechanism”, similar to some countries that also have a total political model. system. Tim Walz also implicitly expressed dissatisfaction with the electoral college mechanism, emphasizing that “the world we live in doesn’t work like that.”
Mr. Walz’s statement is notable because current national surveys show that former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris are competing closely in terms of support rate. With this trend, electors in battleground states may once again determine victory or defeat in the race for the White House.
Governor Tim Walz at the debate in New York on October 2. Image: Reuters
Democratic election campaign managers quickly reinterpreted the statement, to avoid affecting the campaign in a series of battleground states. Vice President Kamala Harris’s campaign representative confirmed that the Minnesota Governor’s comments are not part of his policy plans if the Democratic candidate is elected.
“The Governor believes that every vote is important in the electoral college. He is honored to travel across the country, including battleground states, to mobilize people to support the candidate pair Harris – Walz “, Teddy Tschann, Mr. Walz’s spokesman, emphasized.
Karoline Leavitt, press secretary for Mr. Trump’s campaign, accused Governor Walz of “clearing the way so that in the future he will not accept President Trump’s legitimate victory.” Mr. Trump’s campaign account on social network X also posted an article criticizing Tim Walz for “hating the Constitution, hating the electoral college”.
In US presidential elections, the candidate who receives the most popular votes is not necessarily elected. The American people do not directly elect the president, instead the “electoral college” consists of 538 electors voting. This mechanism is prescribed in the US Constitution and has been applied since 1787.
Each state has a certain number of electors based on population size, corresponding to the number of representatives in the 435 House of Representatives and 100 Senate seats. The remaining three electors come from Washington, DC. Electors usually vote according to the results of the popular vote of the state they represent, but there are no binding regulations. To win, a presidential candidate needs to win at least 270 out of 538 electoral votes.
Often controversial factors in this mechanism are the difference in electoral votes between states and the formation of a small group of battleground states that can determine the election results.
Those who do not support the electoral college system believe that this election method does not accurately reflect the wishes of the majority of voters.
In 2000, Republican candidate George W. Bush won against Democratic candidate Al Gore despite losing the popular vote by more than 540,000 votes. In 2016, Mr. Trump defeated Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton by winning most of the battleground states, despite losing nearly three million popular votes nationwide.