A Step Toward Reform

George Wallace deserves a vote of thanks. His third-party candidacy came so close to denying Richard Nixon an Electoral College majority and throwing the 1968 election into the House of Representatives that the House last week took the first step toward reforming the archaic system that makes such a deadlock possible. It voted to abolish the Electoral College.

To accomplish this, the House gave its 339-to-70 approval to a constitutional amendment substituting direct popular election for the present system of choosing presidential electors. Under the House-approved plan, citizens would vote directly for the President and Vice President as they do for all other elected officials. If no candidate received at least 40% of the vote, the top two aspirants would meet in a run-off election. The plan would eliminate the most glaring inequity of the existing method, under which a candidate could carry the most populous state in the union by only one ballot yet thereby claim all its electoral votes.

The resolution still has a long road to travel before it becomes the 26th Amendment to the Constitution. Determined resistance awaits it in the Senate, where a two-thirds vote is necessary for passage, and many Senators oppose any measure that will reduce their states' leverage in presidential elections. Even if approved by the Senate, the amendment must be ratified by 38 states, some of which are understandably reluctant to give up political power that is often far out of proportion to their population. The amendment does have the support of President Nixon, who has said he will sign it if it reaches his desk--although he doubts that it will get that far. His doubts have failed to discourage proponents of electoral reform. Ten months ago, skeptics predicted that no reform bill would even reach the House floor.

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