A
majority of U.S. adults (58%) say the Constitution should be amended so
the presidential candidate who receives the most votes nationwide wins,
while 40% prefer to keep the current system in which the candidate who
receives the most Electoral College vote wins the election. Support for amending the Constitution has increased slightly since the period immediately following the 2016 election. In a November 2016 CNN/ORC survey, roughly half of adults (51%) favored amending the Constitution to eliminate the Electoral College. And in a March 2018 Pew Research Center survey, 55% favored taking this step.
The current level of support for eliminating the Electoral College is nearly the same as in 2011, when 62% favored amending the Constitution. However, partisans’ attitudes on this question have grown further apart since the 2016 election, with Republicans becoming more supportive of the current system.
How we did this
In 2011, about half of Republicans and independents who lean toward the Republican Party (51%) said the Constitution should be amended. Today, nearly two-thirds prefer to keep the current system, a figure that is essentially unchanged over the past two years.
Among Democrats and Democratic leaners, 81% now say the Constitution should be amended, modestly higher than in other recent years.
Women
and younger adults are more likely than men or older adults to support
amending the Constitution so the candidate who receives the most votes
wins the presidency. About six-in-ten women (63%) say the Constitution
should be amended so the candidate with the most votes wins the
presidency, compared with 52% of men. And while 65% of those ages 18 to
29 support having the popular vote winner become president, the share
falls to 51% among those ages 65 and older. Gender and age differences in these views are more pronounced among Republicans than Democrats. For example, 41% of Republican women favor amending the Constitution so the winner of the popular vote becomes president, compared with 24% of GOP men.
Among Republicans, those who do not have a college degree (36%) are more likely than college graduates (23%) to favor deciding the election with the popular vote. By contrast, Democrats who have not completed college (78%) are somewhat less supportive than Democratic college graduates (86%) of amending the Constitution so the popular vote winner becomes president.
Views of parties’ commitment to fair elections
In
addition to having starkly different views about how presidential
elections should be conducted, Republicans and Democrats both express
low levels of confidence in the other party’s commitment to ensuring
fair and accurate elections in the United States. Overall, 52% of adults say the Republican Party is somewhat or very committed to fair and accurate elections, but just 22% say the GOP is very committed to this goal.
A similar proportion of adults (55%) say the Democratic Party is very or somewhat committed to fair elections, with only 20% saying the party is very committed.
Large majorities of both Republicans (87%) and Democrats (83%) have confidence that their own party is committed to fair elections. And equally small shares – 23% in each party – are confident that the opposing party shares this commitment.
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