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Democratic Senator Introduces Bill Eliminating Electoral College

Democratic Sen. Barbara Boxer (Calif.) introduced legislation on Tuesday to abolish the Electoral College system in the wake of last week's election results that gave Donald Trump the presidency despite Hillary Clinton leading in the popular vote.

"In my lifetime, I have seen two elections where the winner of the general election did not win the popular vote," Boxer said in a statement. "In 2012, Donald Trump tweeted, 'The electoral college is a disaster for a democracy.' I couldn't agree more. One person, one vote!"

Boxer said her bill is in response to Clinton winning the popular vote but losing the election.

The proposed legislation calls for amending the Constitution to get rid of the Electoral College. The bill would need to be approved by three-fourths of the states within seven years before it would take effect even if it passed Congress, the Hill noted.

Boxer is not the only Democrat who has called for abolishing the Electoral College after last week's surprising election results. Former Democratic presidential nominee Michael Dukakis said that the Democratic Party's main focus should be abolishing the system after the Trump administration comes into power, the Washington Free Beacon reported Monday.

"Hillary won this election, and when the votes are all counted, by what will likely be more than a million votes. So how come she isn't going to the White House in January? Because of an anachronistic Electoral College system which should have been abolished 150 years ago," Dukakis told Politico on Sunday.

"That should be at the top of the Democratic priority list while we wait to see what a Trump administration has in store for us. So far, all we know is that dozens of lobbyists are all over the Trump transition–a strange way to drain the swamp," he continued.

Dukakis also said he believes that democracy should respect the will of the people, so keeping an Electoral College would be against that. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I., Vt.), who lost to Clinton in the Democratic primary, suggested that the country should have a "serious" discussion about the Electoral College system.

Clinton currently has over a million more popular votes than Trump, according to the Cook Political Report. Trump is leading in electoral votes with 290 to Clinton's 232.