Starting with George Washington, no president has had the job for more than two full terms. He was asked to run for a third term but he refused because a "transition of power was was needed to set the Constitution in stone." This stayed true for about 150 years until Franklin D. Roosevelt was elected in 1932. He was re-elected for his second term in 1936; however, he was re-elected for a third term in 1940 because the American people did not see it wise to elect another president in the midst of WWII. When his third term was up, again the American people did not think it was smart to change leaders in the middle of WWII, so they re-elected him for a fourth term in 1944. Even though it was said that FDR's leadership was a main reason we came out of the war victorious, Congress decided that once the war was over, Washington's self-imposed two-term limit should become the law. The 22nd Amendment passed Congress on March 21, 1947, and was ratified by 41 states on February 27, 1951.
The Every Vote Counts Amendment
Mr. Gene Greene of Texas proposed the joint resolution to amend the Constitution of the United States. The Every Vote Counts Amendment, proposed January 4, 2007, would abolish the electoral college and would provide for the direct popular election of the President and Vice President. After the election of 1876, the House committee approved a constitutional amendment (The Electoral College) to apply a proportional system to all the states. The argument for this system is that is makes each individual vote valuable because each ballot would affect the candidates' ability to reach the 270 Electoral College votes required to be elected. However, The Every Vote Counts Amendment failed by a vote of 86 to 338.
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