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Show 10 ! DESE OG 3D U.S. Senator Jake Garn (R-Utah) has joined nine other "prominent senators In calling for Senate action this session on a proposed constitutional con-stitutional amendment to eliminate the Electoral College Col-lege and allow direct popular pop-ular election of the President. Pres-ident. In a letter to Senate Majority Leader Robert C. Byrd, the senators requested that S. J. Resolution 1 be considered "as soon as possible pos-sible after the current debate on the Labor Law Reform Bill is completed." Other signers of the letter were: Senators Birch Bayh (D-Ind.), Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.), Robert Dole(R. Kan.), Henry Bellmon (R-Oka.), (R-Oka.), Alan Cranston (D-Calif.), (D-Calif.), Henry M. Jackson (D-Wash.), Lloyd Bentsen (D- Texas), Jacob K.'javits (R-N.Y.) and Charles Math-ias, Math-ias, Jr. (R-Md.). Garn, a co -sponsor of the amendment, stressed that the "individual would benefit bene-fit from direct popular election." elec-tion." He pointed out that the "unit rule" has negated any advantage that smaller, less -populated states might have maintained under the electoral system . "Under the unit rule, all of any state's electoral votes must be awarded to the candidate cand-idate who wins a popular vote plurality, regardless of whether the margin is one vote or a million. "The consequence of this 'winner -take -all' system is that Presidential campaigns are concentrated in the large closely contested urban states with sizeable elec-torial elec-torial blocs to the detriment of the smaller states," he said; In fact, Garn said, the current cur-rent system could permit a candidate who wins the 11 of 12 most populous states to capture the presidency even if he or she were to lose the remainder of the states as well as the popular vote. The Utah Republican said direct elections would elim -inate all weighted factors. "The unit of voting would be the individual vote," he said "and each vote would count the same, regardless of where it is cast." A community or state with large numbers of residents would, of course, have great -'er political impact under the plan, Garn said. "But communities com-munities of similar size would have the same influence influ-ence on the process, which is not the case under the pre -sent system. "Today's political campaigners camp-aigners stop in Oakland, California, Cal-ifornia, and ignore Omaha, Nebraska and Salt Lake City. The reason? California's larger electorlal vote," Garn said. In the letter, Garn and the other senators said the amendment may be the only controversial issue to reach . the floor this year "for which the votes required for cloture clot-ure are assured well in advance ad-vance of floor action and the votes required for passage will be committed before it is taken up." Noting that the amendment appears to have the support of more thap the required two -thirds of the Senate, the letter said it is important to give the House "a signal" ,in order to allow it to com plete work on the measure this year. The letter cited the "breadth of support" for the measure, including such or- ganizations as the American Bar Association, the League of Women Voters, the US Chamber of Commerce, the AFL-CIO and Common Cause." Garn noted that a recent survey by the National Federation Fed-eration of Independent Businesses Busi-nesses of its Utah members indicated that 64 percent were in favor of the amendment. amend-ment. National polls show a five -to -one ratio in favor ' of the measure. |