Protesters hold signs outside the Capitol before Electoral College electors begin voting, Monday, Dec. 19, 2016, in Olympia, Wash. Members of Washington state's Electoral College meet at noon Monday in the Capitol to complete the constitutional formality.
Katie Meyer was WITF’s Capitol Bureau Chief from 2016-2020. While at WITF, she covered all things state politics for public radio stations throughout Pennsylvania. Katie came to Harrisburg by way of New York City, where she worked at Fordham University’s public radio station, WFUV, as an anchor, general assignment reporter, and co-host of an original podcast. A 2016 graduate of Fordham, she earned several awards for her work at WFUV, including four 2016 Gracies.
Katie is a native New Yorker, though she originally hails from Troy, a little farther up the Hudson River. She can attest that the bagels are still pretty good there.
WITF's Capitol Bureau Chief Desk is partially funded through generous gifts made in the memory of Tony May through the Anthony J. May Memorial Fund.
Protesters hold signs outside the Capitol before Electoral College electors begin voting, Monday, Dec. 19, 2016, in Olympia, Wash. Members of Washington state's Electoral College meet at noon Monday in the Capitol to complete the constitutional formality.
If you’re a person who is already invested in the run-up to the 2020 presidential election, you may have noticed a sort of left-field issue getting a bit of press: abolishing the electoral college.
Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren called to dissolve the college in a recent town hall in Mississippi, saying it gives outsize electoral power to just a few swing states. Other abolition supporters argue it inflates the influence of rural voters, while those in favor of keeping the electoral college tend to say it keeps big states from holding too much power.
Although Warren has gotten attention for her anti-electoral college platform, she certainly isn’t the first person to pitch the idea. Controversy over the Electoral College goes all the way back to the founding of the US.
So on this week’s podcast, we discuss why the idea of abolishing it has tantalized Americans for so long, why a majority of voters consistently say they support a national popular vote, and how a creative scheme to invalidate the electoral college is picking up steam—though maybe not in Pennsylvania.