Direct vote for president: amendment would end Electoral College

What it does

This joint resolution proposes a constitutional amendment to abolish the Electoral College and replace it with direct popular vote election of the President and Vice President. Under the amendment, voters would cast a single ballot for a presidential-vice-presidential ticket, and the pair receiving the most votes nationwide would win. Congress would retain authority to set rules for candidate death, disqualification, or tied elections.

Why we flagged it

This is a straightforward constitutional amendment resolution proposing a structural change to presidential election mechanics. It contains no riders, no hidden provisions, and no private beneficiaries—only a direct proposal to alter the constitutional framework governing how Americans elect their chief executive.

What the text implies

• Amendment would require ratification by 38 states (three-fourths of 50), giving smaller states effective veto power over a change that would reduce their relative influence—a structural paradox that may make passage extremely difficult.
• One-year implementation delay after ratification allows time for Congress to establish tie-breaking and candidate-death procedures, but leaves open questions about how faithless electors or write-in campaigns would function under the new system.
• Elimination of state-by-state winner-take-all would shift campaign strategy from swing-state focus to national popular-vote maximization, potentially increasing campaign spending in non-competitive regions but also reducing the outsized influence of a handful of battleground states.

Section numbers refer to the bill text the analysis read — linked under Primary records below.

Who it affects

Direct popular vote would give every citizen's vote equal weight regardless of state, strengthening democratic equality and voter participation in non-swing states. However, the amendment would eliminate the federalist structure that ensures smaller states retain meaningful influence in presidential selection, creating a genuine trade-off between pure majoritarian democracy and state-based representation.

Named in the bill

U.S. Senate, Committee on the Judiciary, Congress, Electoral College, States (collectively)

Where it stands

2 cosponsors: 2 Democrats.

• Sep 29, 2026 — Introduced · Congress.gov: “Introduced in Senate”
• Sep 29, 2026 — Referred to Senate Committee on the Judiciary · Congress.gov: “Read twice and referred to the Committee on the Judiciary”

Dates and quoted wording are Congress.gov's action record; the timeline shows status changes, not every procedural step.