Free Republic

Issue could go to voters in Nov. 2020 election. Colorado voters are probably going to have the final say on whether to keep electing presidents the way we always have or give the candidate who wins the national popular vote all nine of the state’s Electoral College votes. Coloradans Vote, a group hoping put the question to voters in November 2020, submitted more than enough signatures to qualify for the ballot to the Secretary of State’s Office Thursday afternoon. They needed 124,632 valid signatures from registered voters. Rose Pugliese, a Mesa County commissioner and organizer for Coloradans Vote, said they...

Last month, both Maine and Nevada did what was in the best interests of their states: They rejected bills that would have enrolled their states in the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact, an unwise effort to override the Electoral College. In Maine, it was killed by legislators in the state House after it passed Maine’s Senate. In Nevada, Democratic Gov. Steve Sisolak vetoed the bill that had been passed by members of his own party in the Legislature. The National Popular Vote compact, which is an agreement between states, requires a participating state to award all of its electoral votes...

Washington (CNN)First things first: The theme song of the week is the theme from The Larry Sanders Show. Poll of the week: A new NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll finds that President Donald Trump's approval rating among voters nationwide is 45%. His disapproval rating is 52%. This makes for a net approval (approval - disapproval) of -7 points. The average poll has Trump's net approval among voters at -9 points. What's the point: Trump's 2020 strategy seemed to be in full swing this past week. He looks to be doubling down on a campaign of hardline immigration policies and racial...

Maine legislators on Monday killed a measure that would have awarded the state’s electoral college votes to the winner of the national popular vote. A bill to enter Maine into the National Popular Vote Compact failed in a 68-79 vote on Monday in the state House. Twenty Democrats joined Republicans in voting down the measure. The bill had been introduced by state Senate President Troy Jackson (D), and it passed the upper chamber in May. It lost a test vote in the House last month, then won a vote last week before sputtering on Monday. Maine is the second state...

Americans in 1913 showed by their votes they had forgotten the purpose of the Framers’ design for the Senate. We today, by and large, have even forgotten that generation’s forgetting. We have forgotten so much of what Americans once knew about America. To choose just one example—a simple but telling one—there is the name of the city of Cincinnati. For decades, I have been conducting a kind of unscientific poll. Whenever I meet someone from Cincinnati, I always say, “Cincinnati. What an interesting name that is. Do you know where it came from?” The question generally elicits a blank look....

Our readers don’t need to be introduced to the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact, the desperation measure concocted by the Democrats in an effort to make an end run around the Electoral College by pledging states to abide by the popular vote. Fourteen states, along with D.C., have so far passed the compact. One curious provision is that the compact does not go into effect until the number of electoral votes involved reaches 270 – a simple majority which would guarantee a candidate’s victory. The number of electoral votes controlled as of now is 189 – clearly, the promoters have...

Maine's lawmakers passed a bill that would give the state's electoral votes to the presidential candidate who won the national popular vote, taking a step toward becoming the 15th state to enact such a law. The Maine Senate voted 19-16 Tuesday to join the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact, which would give all committed states' electoral votes to the winning popular vote candidate should the group accrue the 270 votes necessary for a majority. California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Rhode Island, Vermont, Washington state and the District of Columbia have all...

Nevada could joins 14 other states and Washington, D.C. to award its electoral votes to the winner of the national popular vote during a presidential election. The Assembly passed AB186 in a narrow vote of 23-17. "I think it's going to increase voter participation," Assem. Tyrone Thompson, D-North Las Vegas said. "This is where we would know that people really will fell like that vote counts even more. It's just that more reason to go to the polls and to make sure that your voice is your vote." Nevada has six electoral votes, which go to the candidate who gets...

There is no shortage of issues upon which Republicans and Democrats can respectfully disagree. We’re silly people sometimes though, and respect seems to come at quite a cost. There are a handful of issues, however, on which Democrats are so profoundly and dangerously wrong that I find myself incapable of empathy. Beto O’Rourke, Senator Kamala Harris, Senator Cory Booker, Senator Elizabeth Warren, Mayor Pete Buttigieg, and more have come out for eliminating the Electoral College. This is an unequivocal deal-breaker for me. It seems one of the only Democrats with any sense is the anti-establishment progressive, Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard, who...

Ronald Reagan was reportedly fond of referencing the late Sen. Daniel Patrick Monahan’s admonition, “Everyone is entitled to his own opinion, but not to his own facts.”Today, that would most particularly include opponents of the growing drive to enact the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact, which would award 270 electoral votes and the presidency to the candidate who wins the most popular votes across all 50 states and the District of Columbia.Of all the myths conjured up by naysayers to try and torpedo the compact, perhaps the most egregious portray the measure as either unconstitutional or an effort to eliminate...

An effort led by Democrats to scrap or bypass the Electoral College and shift presidential elections to contests decided by the national popular vote has almost no chance of succeeding, guaranteeing Democrats will again have to defeat Trump in the Electoral College they lost in 2016 while winning more votes nationally. The Electoral College places the power to elect presidents in the hands of individual states and is enshrined in the Constitution.

Offer for an option in the spirit of bipartisan compromise... short, but not necessarily sweet. If the Democrat nominee (as in 2016), wins the popular votes but loses the Electoral College, we count the popular vote (Democrat elected POTUS). But… if the Democrat loses the popular vote, but wins the Electoral College, we count the Electoral vote (Democrat elected POTUS). However... if by chance, the Democrat candidate loses both the popular vote and the Electoral vote… we melt down and scream “Democracy has failed” and demand endless investigations of the GOP winner... throughout their term(s). Justa humble suggestion.

Colorado is the latest state to pass a bill which would change the way presidential candidates win office. The state joins 11 others after passing a bill to join the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact. Under the compact, the candidate who receives the most popular votes nationwide would be be awarded the electoral college votes from participating states, even if the candidate lost in that state. In order for the bills in states which have passed laws recognizing the agreement, a total of 270 electoral votes from participating states is needed. Colorado has joined California, Connecticut, D.C., Hawaii, Maine, Maryland,...

Colorado Gov. Jared Polis (D) will sign a measure to award his state’s electoral votes to the winner of the national popular vote, moving a countrywide coalition one step closer to circumventing the Electoral College. In an interview Sunday, Polis called the Electoral College an “undemocratic relic” of the nation’s past, one he wants to see relegated to the dustbin of history. “I’ve long supported electing the president by who gets the most votes,” Polis told The Hill. “It’s a way to move towards direct election of the president.” Colorado will become the 12th state to join the national popular...

Electoral College advocates see a window of opportunity to eliminate America’s unique presidential election system. They are seizing the moment, working to implement change before anyone realizes what happened. They even think they can do it without a constitutional amendment. National Popular Vote (NPV) is a California-based effort that has been running under the radar. Its proponents ask state legislatures to agree to an interstate compact. By the terms of that simple contract, each participating state would agree to allocate its entire slate of electors to the winner of the national popular vote. This is a change from the current...

SANTA FE, N.M. — Democratic New Mexico legislators in Santa Fe haven’t given up bringing their state into a movement to elect future U.S. presidents by popular vote. Four lawmakers have introduced a bill to place New Mexico into an inter-state compact that requires Electoral College voters to cast ballots for the national popular vote winner. States representing 270 electoral votes must join for the compact to function.

When Donald Trump surprised the world by winning the 2016 election, liberals clung to the idea that his victory was illegitimate because Hillary Clinton won the popular vote. According to a psychologist who supported Clinton in 2016, however, Google's bias in Clinton's favor may remove even that symbolic victory from her. Almost all of Clinton's popular vote margin could be attributed to Google bias, making her win "negligible." Dr. Robert Epstein, a psychologist who earned his Ph.D. at Harvard, actually reported this finding last year, but he explains how it works in the upcoming film "The Creepy Line." Epstein made...

It's not what you don't know that can hurt you; it's what you think you know that just ain’t so that will kill you. Time has taught me that this piece of “country” wisdom is as important as any in the pursuit of public policy. Ignorance based on false facts is deadly in public policy. Take the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact as an example. The National Popular Vote plan is an interstate compact in which the compacting states agree to award their electoral votes to the person who gets the most votes in all 50 states. It is based...

Connecticut’s legislature has passed a bill that would give the state’s Electoral College votes to the presidential candidate who wins the popular vote nationally. The state Senate voted 21-14 on Saturday to join the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact, which includes 10 states and the District of Columbia. The state House passed the measure last week, 77 to 73.

Among the recent garbled effusions from today’s temporary president — cheer up; they are all temporary — was one that concerned something about which he might not have thought as deeply as the subject merits. During an episode of government of, by, and for “Fox & Friends,” he said: He won the 2016 election “easily” but wishes the electoral vote system were replaced by direct election of presidents by popular vote. He favors this “because” — if you were expecting him to offer reasons drawn from political philosophy or constitutional theory, grow up — “to me, it’s much easier to...