Posted on 03/03/2019 5:38:03 PM PST by yesthatjallen
A plan to circumvent the Electoral College is gaining momentum among blue states after Democrats suffered two crushing defeats in presidential elections over the past two decades.
The plan has been given new impetus after Colorado Gov. Jared Polis (D) said this week that he will sign a bill to have his state become the 12th state along with the District of Columbia to join the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact.
The states making up the compact, which already includes New York, Illinois and all the New England states except for New Hampshire, would commit to awarding their electoral votes to whoever wins the popular vote nationally, regardless of the results in the Electoral College.
So far, these states, with Colorado, add up to 181 electoral votes, well short of the 270 needed to ascend to the White House.
Advocates are doubtful that enough states can join the compact for it to take effect by 2020, but hold hope of garnering enough support by 2024, as a handful of states like New Mexico also consider the measure, though proponents acknowledge the path to get to 270 will be far from easy.
Colorado state Rep. Emily Sirota (D), one of the sponsors of that state’s legislation, said she sees the compact “as a way to ensure that every vote is counted equally” and force candidates to campaign nationwide instead of targeting a few battleground states that can deliver success in the electoral math.
“If we had presidential candidates campaigning across the country, instead of a handful of swing states, you'd see a lot more participation from across the country and I think that is good and healthy for our electoral process,” Sirota told The Hill.
The renewed push comes after 2016 Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton lost the election that year despite winning the popular vote, the second time it has happened since the turn of the century.
The defeat was especially crushing to Democrats after a similar loss suffered by former Vice President Al Gore in 2000.
All states that are now part of the compact voted for Gore in 2000 and Clinton in 2016.
Colorado voted for Clinton last time but picked former President George W. Bush in 2000.
Critics of the Electoral College system have long argued it incentivizes candidates to target swing states with a bounty of electoral votes, while discouraging turnout by voters in states that are reliably red or blue.
Opponents of the current electoral system also say that electing a president through a popular vote could improve how presidents govern in office.
John Koza, the chairman of the National Popular Vote, a group that advocates for the compact, said the Electoral College “distorts” public policy by incentivizing presidents to cater to key swing states while in office, particularly in their first term.
"It's not only unfair that the second place candidate can win, it's also not good for the office of president or the country,” he said.
“When you're sitting in the White House … you say, ‘What states do I have to win and what do I have to do to win them?' That's just not a good way for public policy to be set,” Koza added.
Advocates of the compact are holding up hope that more steps will follow Colorado in joining the compact, which was first introduced in academic research papers as a way to effectively get rid of the electoral college system without going through the daunting process of a constitutional amendment.
The most promising is New Mexico, which has already passed a popular vote bill through one chamber and has a Democratic Governor.
Should it pass, the state would add 5 electoral votes to the compact, bringing the total to 186.
Meanwhile, legislators in 16 states have introduced bills this session seeking to join the compact, according to National Popular Vote.
Of those, Democratically-controlled Delaware, Maine, Nevada and Oregon look the most promising, with a total tally of 20 additional votes that could bring the total to 206 – though even there, the prospects are far from guaranteed.
Oregon state Rep. Diego Hernandez (D), a sponsor of the state’s popular vote bill, said there may not be enough momentum in the current legislative session to pass.
“We have so many big issues we're tackling this session, when it comes to housing and the environment and education and revenue reform, that although the conversation's happening, I'm not sure that it's the top priority in terms of the collective agenda,” Hernandez said.
But the prospect of passage in some of the other 16 states where a popular vote bill has been introduced look far less certain given many have split powers or are deep-red, like South Carolina or Mississippi.
Republicans are mostly opposed to any measure to derail the Electoral College system, seeing as unconstitutional.
Opponents of using the popular vote to elect presidents have long argued it would result in candidates catering to large cities and large states to rack up votes, which tend to have a bigger share of Democratic voters, ignoring smaller or rural areas.
Rose Pugliese, a county commissioner in Colorado, said in a tweet she had petitioned the Secretary of State not to award the state’s votes to the winner of the popular vote, saying such a move “allows California and New York to decide Colorado’s votes for President.”
Nonetheless advocates of the compact remain hopeful.
Koza, the National Popular Vote chairman, said garnering the necessary support by 2020 was “theoretically” possible, but believed it was more likely by 2024.
"You never know how a bandwagon can get rolling,” he said. “So at the moment, I couldn't name states that would get us there in time for 2020, although there's theoretically ways to do it. It seems perfectly plausible that we should get there by 2024."
If the Bible is accurate then American is damned by God.
All the SocDem states banding together to give their EC votes to the popular vote winner will not affect the election unless the Republican candidate manages to eke out a popular win what with the really massive vote fraud that will be in play. If that were to happen then the “compact” would give a humoungous EC win tho the Republican.
Florida will most likely vote SocDem in 2020 because the Democrats control the vote and the count in several large Florida cities. The vote totals in several counties will double the number of eligible voters and the count will be accepted by the Republicans, complained about but accepted.
What about all the red voters in the deep blue states who never bother to vote because they know their votes don’t mean squat? Will they now turn out in droves?
Will this backfire on the demonRats?
The END of PEACEFUL TRANSITIONS....the END of AMERICA!!
This will backfire spectacularly on the Leftists:
A. Trump wins the popular vote in 2020.
B. All blue states are forced to flip their electoral votes to Trump.
C. Leftists have another meltdown.
D. Microwave more popcorn.
The Electoral College prevents mob rule. The Communist-inspired Democrats know this, but will do anything to take over and destroy our country.
What we need is an Electoral College at the county level for each State to prevent the mob rule that takes place right now because a handful of counties dominate the state level elections. These counties are characterized by high crime, drugs, corrupt politics, and questionable voting records.
Implementing the Electoral College at the county level for each state will prevent the mob rule that is taking place today, and give the forgotten men and women of the country a voice in the electoral process.
Folks, these tactics are stupid but constitutional. States can allocate their electoral votes in any way they choose. Nebraska and Maine are esamples of other methods.
Nothing in the Constitution requires a state to award electoral votes to the winner of that state’s popular vote.
Republicans in the states that have adopted this massively UNFAIR scheme need to reverse the laws in those states before it is too late.
Time for some lawsuits.
Well, since May of 1998, I suppose I've posted a lot of nonsense.
To which particular nonsense of mine does your post refer?
New Jersey is already planning to keep Trump off the ballot in 2020. California will probably limit ballot access, as they already do in statewide races, using their jungle primary system.
As others have well pointed out, there is no "national popular vote" that could be tabulated, verified, and certified, but if blue states can keep a Republican or other opposition party candidate (I think the GOP is finished) off the ballot, then it really won't matter anyway.
The cynic in me says that if or when that happens, it will be the GOP wanting to do away with the EC.
Leave the system as it is. It may not be perfect but the alternatives are much worse.
What is the impetus for Conservative states to remain in the union if the citizens of those states have been disenfranchised from the Presidential election by NY and CA?
Both of those situations would be ripe for a court challenge. Hopefully, RBG will be dead by then (if she isn't already dead), and a suitable replacement will have been confirmed.
The precedent in the People's Democratic Republic of New Jersey would be the illegal ballot replacement of Robert "The Torch" Toricelli by Frank "The Walking Corpse" Lautenberg, the NJ Supreme Court's justification being that "the public interest" depended on having two opposing candidates on the ballot.
Who knows what the Rats in Kalifornica will try.
Challenge to what?
The Constitution grants State Legislatures the exclusive right to appoint Electors for President and Vice President. The Constitution doesn't even imply that a popular vote should be involved (except in the very poorly drafted XXII Amendment).
Excellent observation on your account. That seems to be right on the money:
"...(Article 1 - The Legislative Branch Section 10 - Powers Prohibited of States) No State shall enter into any Treaty, Alliance, or Confederation..."
Can't get much clearer than that. Good job, arrogantsob...thanks for posting that.
I am in a deep blue state, but I damn well make sure my futile voice is heard in every election no matter what...or, how futile!
I would like to see it backfire in the way you describe...wouldn’t THAT be delicious!
You have that right. I have often made the analogy of Conservatism vs. Leftism in two ways:
Second, Conservatives are like the boy with his finger plugging a leaking hole in a dike. Leftists are the mass of water on the other side, never sleeping, always with pressure on everywhere, always searching for a crack, no matter how small, via which they may infiltrate a value system and corrode it to their will. Conservatives must be on guard, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, and even the smallest lapse in watchfulness will result in an infiltration.
That is what happened to me. I fell asleep on watch with this. I had heard minor rumblings, only to wake up when I heard this, looked out the window and saw the lava flow approaching.
Wouldn’t happen. They’d ignore the pact and refuse to cast their votes for Trump anyway.
Yup. I think that's their plan: cast their EVs for the rat in any and all cases, regardless of the peoples' votes.
Even better! The reality is that these are not national votes anyway, so such a law only restates the Constitutional intent of the EC, so if challenged, should not be struck down.
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