As the Democratic governor presided over the Empire State’s ceremonial Electoral College vote in Albany, she called for an amendment to the U.S. Constitution to eliminate the election system and relegate it “to the history books.”

Hochul’s words came as she joined political leaders in the state capitol to cast New York’s 28 Electoral College votes for Vice President Kamala Harris. 

“We, the people, forming a more perfect union, and I strongly believe that the people of New York state and the United States of America should and must have their votes count equally and that the popular vote should prevail,” Hochul said during a speech that argued the Electoral College gives less populated states “outsized influence” in selecting the president.

To settle fears that candidates who won the presidential election based solely on winning the popular vote might view the victory as a mandate for dictatorship, the founders established the Electoral College in 1787. To select the president, each state is allocated a certain number of electoral votes based on its population.

As opposed to winning the election solely based on the baseline number of people who vote for candidates, politicians are required to clinch 270 electoral votes in order to win the presidential election. 

Hochul said she was worried about scenarios where political candidates win the presidency by clinching the Electoral College despite losing the popular vote.

She specifically cited the 2016 election, when President-elect Donald Trump first won the presidency. That year, Trump lost the popular vote but won the White House because he received 306 votes at the Electoral College.  

The New York governor called the 2016 results “the worst case scenario,” saying it means that “a person can become president of the United States even if he or she did not win the popular vote.” 

Democratic New York State Sen. James Skoufis, who is running to become the next chairman of the Democratic National Committee, has also attacked the Electoral College system. Meanwhile, Sens. Brian Schatz (D-HI), Dick Durbin (D-IL), and Peter Welch (D-VT) recently introduced legislation pushing a constitutional amendment to abolish the Electoral College. 

During the 2024 election cycle, Gov. Tim Walz (D-MN), who was Vice President Kamala Harris’s vice presidential running mate, made headlines for suggesting the Electoral College should be abolished. 

Walz and spokespeople for the Harris campaign later walked back his comments, saying abolishing the Electoral College was not the campaign’s position.