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VERIFY: What would it actually take to get rid of the electoral college?

Whether or not you think we should do away with the electoral college, what would be required to have it eliminated? The Verify team breaks it down.

WASHINGTON — There are a multitude of opinions circulating regarding whether or not we should get rid of the electoral college.

So, what would it actually take to abolish the electoral college? 

To get answers, our Verify team reached out to two professors that specialize in elections and politics — John Dinan, Politics and International Affairs Professor at Wake Forest University and Theodore Allen, Integrated Systems Engineering at The Ohio State University.

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Experts explained that getting rid of the electoral college would require amending Article II, section 1 of the Constitution. This needs the support of two-thirds of the House and Senate, then three-quarters of the State legislatures have to vote yes to ratify the amendment.

Only 27 amendments have been approved in 230 years. 

Now there is the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact plan, which wouldn't eliminate the electoral college but would bypass it as result of guaranteeing Presidency to the candidate who receives the most popular votes in all 50 states.

The bill would go into effect if the law is passed by states totaling 270 electoral votes. 

"There has been an ongoing effort, joined last week by Colorado, to essentially bypass the electoral college without passing a constitutional amendment," Dinan said, regarding the NPVIC. "However, the conventional view of legal scholars is that this state compact would not be able to survive a number of legal challenges."

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