The whole push for a "national popular vote" gained momentum after the 2000 and 2004 elections. I've been under the impression that the whole issue died off after Obama was elected in 2008.
Even these popular vote agreements that have been passed in state legislatures are idiotic no matter how you look at them. The problem is that all of the states that have passed these measures are deep "Blue" states, which makes the measures completely one-sided the wrong way, for them. If California, for example, has a law that says its electoral votes will be cast for the candidate who wins the national popular vote, then there are only two scenarios that could unfold in any given presidential election:
(1) a Democrat wins the national popular vote and California's electoral votes are cast for the Democratic candidate ... who would have won more popular votes in California anyway.
(1) a Republican wins the national popular vote, and California's electoral votes are cast for the Republican candidate ... even though the Democrat would have won more votes in California.
The whole thing is a joke. If this measure had been in effect in California in 2000, then California's electoral votes would have remained unchanged (Gore won California).
If this measure had been in effect in California in 2004, then California's electoral votes would have gone to Bush even though Kerry won the state by a wide margin.
Good post.
I have read that there are 242 electoral votes that make up the so-called “blue wall” ie they have voted Democrat 6 times or more consecutively for Democrat POTUS candidates. None of those are going to change anytime soon.
The reality is that the 2016 POTUS election will be held in Florida and Ohio. Pretty much everything else is fluff.