Looking Ahead: National Popular Vote Compact
Aside from preparing for the 2022 midterm elections, we should be looking ahead to 2024, when we hope to see the National Popular Vote (NPV) become effective. The NPV initiative is a state-level compact that will effectively eliminate the electoral college without having to pass a Constitutional amendment. The electoral college gives swing states disproportional control over election; a president can be elected with only 21 percent of vote.
Currently, fifteen states and the District of Columbia have signed this compact, representing 196 of the 270 electoral college votes, or 73 percent. The states that have signed are California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, District of Columbia, Hawaii, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, and Washington.
Members of the pact agree to allocate all of their electors to the presidential candidate who wins the national popular vote (not the just the state's popular vote). The pact will be triggered when the number of states that have signed represent 270 electoral votes Currently, seventy-four additional electoral votes are needed to seal the pact.
The good news is that NPV has also pushed the legislation halfway through nine additional states—Arizona, Arkansas, Maine, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, North Carolina, Oklahoma, and Virginia—totaling eighty-eight electoral votes.
If you’d like to help the NPV succeed, watch all or some of their forty short videos answering every possible objection. Arm yourself with knowledge to advocate for this important change.
For Marylanders: Our state has already passed this legislation, but you can still join the National Popular Vote tand help them achieve their goals through phone banking and other related activities. Write to family and friends in the eight key states and ask them to click the link on their state's page to send emails of support to all of their representatives (it literally takes a few seconds).
