Thursday, December 5, 1968
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
11
Few favor Electoral College
By GLORIA VOBEJDA Special to the Kansan
Fifty out of eighty-five KU students and faculty surveyed in a campus poll favor abolition of the Electoral College and election of the President by direct popular election.
More than 500 unsuccessful attempts have been made to change the present method of electing a President since the College was instituted in 1787.
Herman Lujan, assistant professor of political science, said, "We have the technical capability to count votes quickly and accurately, we may as well use it."
Interest in the electoral college seems to rise with each presidential election and seems to fall soon after, but this time Lujan believes there will be a change.
"I don't see why they go to all that trouble," said John Kartsonis, Hutchinson senior, "when they could just count the number of votes and see who wins."
Kartsonis said that many times
the popular vote has gone one way and the electoral votes another. He was referring to the three occasions, 1824, 1876 and 1888, when the presidential candidate with the largest popular vote failed to obtain an electoral vote majority.
The latest post-election Gallup poll shows 81 per cent of the public in favor of basing the election of the President on the popular vote. Last September a similar survey by Gallup showed 66 per cent favored an end to the Electoral College.
Thirty-one of the eighty-five persons polled on the KU campus preferred some kind of reform.
Forty reform amendments are currently before the House Judiciary committee.
"Theoretically, the outcome of the election is still in doubt," said Marian Godfrey, Prairie Village graduate student, who favors reform of the electoral system.
"The popular vote won't be
completely counted for several weeks," she continued, "and the Electoral College will not cast its votes until December 16, when the groups of electors in each state meet in their respective state capitals."
Mrs. Godfrey also noted that the electors were not constitutionally bound to vote for the candidate winning the most votes in his state—another factor which adds to the uncertainty of the system.
Edward Zasadny, Kansas City senior, said the electoral votes were not representative of the people's desire and further leads to complications.
"We might not know for two months who the next President would be if none of the candidates received a majority of the electoral college votes," he said. The election could be thrown into the House of Representatives where the voting is more
disproportionate than in the Electoral College.
In the House of Representatives, states such as Alaska and Nevada with only three electoral votes have the same weight as California and New York with 40 and 43 electoral votes respectively.
McWilliams also believes it would be easier for the mass media to influence the electorate because of varying time zones and polling places.
Wayne McWilliams, Topeka graduate student, said, "I don't favor a national popular election. It would be too open to corruption and manipulation."
Establishment of a nationwide uniform voting period for presidential elections is one of the reforms in the 1968 Republican party platform.
McWilliams said he would have the voting transferred from the electors, which he termed "faceless people," to congressional district representatives.
Only four of the 85 persons polled wanted the Electoral College system retained.
Carolyn Whitfield, Kansas City, Mo., sophomore, said, "I realize the electoral college has problems but any other system would have problems too. With a national popular vote someone could win the election with 25 per cent of the votes cast and this is not big enough a mandate for a President of the United States."
Miss Whitfield said she also agrees with James E. Titus, associate professor of political science, that it would encourage splinter parties and candidates would ignore small states.
George Fields, Leavenworth senior, wants to keep the present system. He said, "It's the best thing we have. Nothing has come along to replace it yet."
MU budget is cut
JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (UPI)
—Dr. John C. Weaver, president of the University of Missouri, has warned that if the university does not get the money it has requested, enrollment will have to be held or cutback and research and many other services eliminated.
Appearing before Gov. Warren E. Hearnes on the second day of the governor's budget appeals hearings, Weaver said the $9 million cutback in the university's request by the budget office would result in the university's
consideration of a curtailment of enrollment growth and possibly reducing the number of students, elimination of research in a variety of areas, reduction in hospital services including probable closing of 50 to 125 beds and slowing down or elimination of public-oriented research efforts in many fields.
However, Weaver ran into some trouble justifying his request with Hearnes and the chairman of the House and Senate Appropriations Committees.
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