Jill Lepore

But he also gets through, you know, the 26th Amendment, which reduces the voting age from 21 to 18, right?

The student anti-war movement had really fought for that.

He was not a big fan of the ERA, but his wife was.

And she kicks him in the pants and he gets that done.

But...

The thing he really cared about the most and is the heartbreaker of, I mean, in my mind of the book, is the abolition of the Electoral College.

So there had been a lot of concern about the Electoral College.

It's like probably the most common, most frequently introduced amendment on the floor of Congress is either to reform or abolish the Electoral College.

Because given changing population, it's a ticking time bomb.

especially with a polarized electorate, it's a ticking time bomb.

Like before, you know, 2000, it was not common for someone to win the popular vote

and lose the election.

But that has happened several times in the 21st century.

And it happened or seemed like it was about to happen.

In Bayh's era, people were really worried about that because they thought that, I think rightly, it's really hard to even understand what the hell the electoral college is and why we have it.

And so the democratic legitimacy of a president elected who has lost the popular vote, that's tough for people to take.

It just is.

People are uncomfortable with it.

And so there were a bunch of plans, different like reforms that would make that less likely.

And then there was just like, let's just get rid of it.