{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://cohen.house.gov/media-center/press-releases/ranking-member-cohen-introduces-amendment-us-constitution-eliminate", "Ranking Member Cohen Introduces Amendment to the U.S. Constitution to Eliminate the Electoral College", "2016-12-01", "2016", "2016-12", "Democrat", "House", "TN", "Steve Cohen", "C001068", "cohen.house.gov", null, null, "legacy", "[WASHINGTON, DC] \u2013 Congressman Steve Cohen (TN-09), Ranking Member of the House Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution and Civil Justice, today introduced an amendment to the United States Constitution that would eliminate the Electoral College and provide for the direct election of the President and Vice President of the United States.\n\u201cFor the second time in recent memory, and for the fifth time in our history, we have a President-elect, who lost the popular vote,\u201d said Congressman Cohen. \u201cThe Electoral College is an antiquated system that was established to prevent citizens from directly electing our nation\u2019s President, yet that notion is antithetical to our understanding of democracy. In our country, \u2018We the People\u2019 are supposed to determine who represents us in elective office.\u201d \nCongressman Cohen continued, \u201cWhen the Founders established the electoral college, it was in an era of limited nationwide communication.\u00a0 It was premised on a theory that citizens would have a better chance of knowing about electors from their home states than about presidential candidates from out-of-state. The development of mass media and the internet, however, has made information about presidential candidates easily accessible to U.S. citizens across the country and around the world. Today, citizens have a far better chance of knowing about out-of-state presidential candidates than knowing about presidential electors from their home states.\u00a0 Most people don\u2019t even know who their electors are.\nCongressman Cohen concluded, \u201cSince our nation first adopted our Constitution, we have amended it repeatedly to expand the opportunity for citizens to directly elect our leaders.\u00a0We have Constitutional amendments that guarantee the right of all citizens to vote regardless of race, gender and age for citizens who are 18 years of age and older, as well as an amendment to empower citizens to directly elect U.S. Senators. We need to also empower citizens to directly elect the President and the Vice President of the United States. It is time for us to fix the anachronistic process of the Electoral College and make our Constitution better reflect the \u2018more perfect Union\u2019 to which it aspires.\u201d", 1, "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z", "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://cohen.house.gov/media-center/press-releases/ranking-member-cohen-introduces-amendment-us-constitution-eliminate"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 0.7112850435078144, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}