Center director to defend electoral college at Lafayette College debate

Oct. 23, 2012 - McConnell Center Director Gary L. Gregg will face University of Kansas political science professor Bird Loomis in debate over the future of the electoral college.
Center director to defend electoral college at Lafayette College debate

Gary L. Gregg, director

A debate on whether Americans should abolish the Electoral College and elect presidents by popular vote will be held at Lafayette College at 7 p.m., Oct. 23 between Gary L. Gregg, director of the McConnell Center at the University of Louisville, and Burdett A. “Bird” Loomis, a professor of political science at the University of Kansas.

Gregg has written in defense of the Electoral College, while Loomis has advocated direct election of the president. According to a Lafayette College press release, this year’s tight presidential race could produce a replay of the 2000 race in which Al Gore won the popular vote but George W. Bush won the electoral-college vote.

The event is sponsored by the Intercollegiate Studies Institute, a nonpartisan educational organization based in Wilmington, Delaware, and the Robert B. and Helen S. Meyner Center for the Study of State and Local Government at Lafayette College.