58 percent favor electing presidents based on popular vote: Gallup

A near majority of Americans favor amending the Constitution in order to elect presidents based on the popular vote, according to a poll released Friday. 

The Gallup survey found that 58 percent of Americans are in favor of making the change, while 39 percent still prefer the Electoral College system.

Backing for the popular vote system has been consistent since 2000, the pollster noted. The notable exception was following the 2016 presidential election, when then-candidate Donald Trump won over former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, where 47 percent of Americans said they wanted to keep the current electoral system. 

The highest level of support for switching to a popular vote system was in November 1968, when 80 percent of adult Americans said they were in favor of doing “away with the Electoral College and base the election of a president on the total vote cast throughout the nation,” Gallup noted. 

In the 21st century, the idea had the most support in October 2011, when 62 percent of Americans said they were in favor of amending the Constitution. 

Over 8 in 10 Democrats, 82 percent, in the poll said they support switching to a popular vote election system. Only 3 in 10 Republicans, or 32 percent, said the same. About 66 percent of GOP voters said they preferred the current Electoral College system.

Roughly 60 percent of independents also favored an updated system, the survey found.

In the current race, Vice President Harris leads Trump by 4.1 points — 49.9 percent to 45.8 percent — according to The Hill/Decision Desk HQ's (DDHQ) aggregate of polls. The DDHQ index shows Trump with a 43.7 percent favorability rating compared to 54.2 percent unfavorable one. Harris shows a 49.3 percent favorability rating compared to 48 percent unfavorable, per the aggregate.

The Gallup poll was conducted Sept. 3-15 among 1,007 adults and has a margin of error was of 4 percentage points at the 95 percent confidence level.