Article II Section. 1 (As amended by the 12th Amendment)
The executive Power shall be vested in a President of the United States of America. He shall hold his Office during the Term of four Years, and, together with the Vice President, chosen for the same Term, be elected, as follows:
Each State shall appoint, in such Manner as the Legislature thereof may direct, a Number of Electors, equal to the whole Number of Senators and Representatives to which the State may be entitled in the Congress: but no Senator or Representative, or Person holding an Office of Trust or Profit under the United States, shall be appointed an Elector.
The Electors shall meet in their respective States, and vote by Ballot for two Persons President and Vice-President, of whom one at least shall not be an Inhabitant of the same State with themselves.
And they shall make a List of all the Persons voted for name in their ballots the person voted for as President, and in distinct ballots the person voted for as Vice-President, and they shall make distinct lists of all persons voted for as President, and of all persons voted for as Vice-President, and of the Number of Votes for each; which Lists they shall sign and certify, and transmit sealed to the Seat of the Government of the United States, directed to the President of the Senate. The President of the Senate shall, in the Presence of the Senate and House of Representatives, open all the Certificates, and the Votes shall then be counted.
The Person having the greatest Number of Votes shall be the President for President, shall be the President, if such Number be a Majority of the whole Number of Electors appointed; and if there be more than one who have such Majority, and have an equal Number of Votes, then no person have such majority, then from the persons having the highest numbers not exceeding three on the list of those voted for as President, the House of Representatives shall immediately chuse by Ballot one of them for President; and if no Person have a Majority, then from the five highest on the List the said House shall in like Manner chuse the President, the President.
But in chusing the President, the Votes shall be taken by States, the Representation from each State having one Vote; A quorum for this purpose shall consist of a Member or Members from two thirds of the States, and a Majority of all the States shall be necessary to a Choice.
In every Case, after the Choice of the President, the Person having the greatest Number of Votes of the Electors shall be the Vice President. But if there should remain two or more who have equal Votes, the Senate shall chuse from them by Ballot the Vice President. The person having the greatest number of votes as Vice-President, shall be the Vice-President, if such number be a majority of the whole number of Electors appointed, and if no person have a majority, then from the two highest numbers on the list, the Senate shall choose the Vice-President; a quorum for the purpose shall consist of two-thirds of the whole number of Senators, and a majority of the whole number shall be necessary to a choice. But no person constitutionally ineligible to the office of President shall be eligible to that of Vice-President of the United States.
The Congress may determine the Time of chusing the Electors, and the Day on which they shall give their Votes; which Day shall be the same throughout the United States.
No Person except a natural born Citizen, or a Citizen of the United States, at the time of the Adoption of this Constitution, shall be eligible to the Office of President; neither shall any Person be eligible to that Office who shall not have attained to the Age of thirty five Years, and been fourteen Years a Resident within the United States.
See the bolded, underlined, black text.
According to the 12th amendment, if a candidate fails to reach the majority of electoral college votes (270), the House of Representatives decides amongst the top 3 vote-getters.
Since the NPV Interstate Compact is not an amendment, the Article VI supremacy clause rules that the 12th amendment supercedes as Constitutional law of the land.
I'm simply pointing out that the NPV Compact is being sold as a method to get around the Electoral College, but it is also a scheme to get around the House of Representatives, too, via circumventing the 12th amendment.
Since an interstate compact requires Congressional consent, one can lobby the House to withhold their consent because they would be ceding away one of their unique powers to a handful of states. Under the NPV Interstate Compact, there would never again be a case where a candidate fails to attain the majority of electoral college votes. It's debatable as to whether that's a good or bad thing.
For those who argue that this is not a compact requiring Congressional consent, I argue that taking away a Constitutional power of the House without their consent, when the remedy is already in the Constitution (Congressionial consent for interstate compacts), then this fact is enough to demand Congressional consent to the compact.
-PJ