Rep. Cohen: Electoral College Was ‘Conceived in Sin,’ Meant to Perpetuate Slavery

Tuesday on CNN’s “Right Now,” Rep. Steve Cohen (D-TN) discussed Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) call to abolishing the Electoral College for presidential elections in favor of a national popular vote.

Cohen said, “The country is different than it was when the Constitution was drafted. When the Constitution was drafted, a lot of it had to do with slavery. The stave states wanted equal representation in the Senate because they wanted to keep slavery. The slave states wanted to have an electoral college where the members that they had in Congress counted towards the vote for president, where the slaves counted as two-thirds and in the popular vote they would count as zero. So the slave states didn’t want a popular election because their slaves wouldn’t count toward voting and the slave states would have less votes. This is all conceived in sin and perpetuating slavery on the American people and on the African-American people directly.”