Raps Move to End Electoral College

Frank Mankiewicz, who managed Sen. George McGovern’s Presidential campaign in 1972, warned last night that abolition of the Electoral College, proposed by President Carter, could result in anti-Jewish, anti-Black and other extremist parties gaining dangerous influence in the American political process.

“Any effort to dump the Electoral College would be a signal for every bigot in America to start a political party,” Mankiewicz told the biennial convention of the National Women’s Division of the American Jewish Congress here.

Any tampering with the way Americans choose their President “would cause irreparable damage to the political process and the two party system,” Mankiewicz said. Direct election of the President would “fragmentize the system and lead to the same instability that has marked the European political scene. Virtually any cause, no matter how disreputable, can get a million votes in America today,” he said, adding:

“The only thing that prevents these groups from contaminating the national political system is the fact that we elect our Presidents on the basis of the states they carry, not the popular vote.”

DANGER OF MOVE NOTED

Mankiewicz warned that “Proliferation of political groupings of every stripe and hue–anti-Jewish and anti-Black parties–would be the inevitable result of abandoning the Electoral College. These parties, too weak to win but strong enough to prevent anyone else from winning, would be in a position to bargain politically in any run-off that may take place. This would enormously increase the influence of extremist groups in American life and pose a major threat to American democracy,” he said.

“For all its faults, the two party system has served as the great healer of political and social conflicts in America. It has contained the pressures of our society by preventing social, religious and other tensions from being directed into political activity,” Mankiewicz said.