The Electoral College system is seriously flawed. Five times in our history, a president was elected while getting fewer votes than his opponent. A move is afoot to eliminate this problem—the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact (NVIC).
The National Popular Vote bill would guarantee the presidency to the candidate who receives the most popular votes across all 50 states and the District of Columbia. It has been enacted into law in 16 jurisdictions, with 196 electoral votes. The bill will go into effect when adopted by states with an additional 74 electoral votes.
Last week in Virginia, the House passed the bill, and it moved to the Senate for consideration. If passed by the Senate, Virginia would join 15 other states and the District of Columbia in agreeing to award its electoral votes to the presidential candidate who receives the most popular votes in all 50 states and Washington, DC.
A continuing problem is that myths abound about the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact (NPVIC). One of these myths is that the NPVIC would do away with the Electoral College System. This misunderstanding was the second sentence of a report this past weekend in an article by the Richmond Times-Dispatch and carried in other newspapers, including the Roanoke Times.
The article incorrectly stated that the NPVIC would abolish the Electoral College. That is not true. It would do the opposite. The National Popular Vote compact would preserve the Electoral College. It would not abolish it. It would not affect the structure of the Electoral College contained in the U.S. Constitution.
The National Popular Vote plan is based on the power of the states to choose their preferred method of awarding electoral votes. The compact would replace existing state winner-take-all statutes with a different state statute, namely one that guarantees the presidency to the candidate who receives the most popular votes in all 50 states and the District of Columbia.
The popular vote is a usual way of national elections. Our current method is unusual. As the Richmond Times-Dispatch article indicates, “Of the 28 freest presidential democracies, 21 use the majority of votes to award the presidency.”
Under the National Popular Vote plan, states would retain their exclusive and plenary power to choose the method of awarding their electoral votes, including the option to make other changes in the future.
Another myth is that the National Popular Vote would be imposed without the consent of the majority of Americans. Numerous polls conducted by different polling organizations over several years, using a variety of different wordings of questions, all report high levels of support for a national popular vote. Among the 40 states with polling data on this question, the lowest percentage of a state preferring a national popular vote is 67 percent.
Yet another myth is that NPVIC is a plan of Democrats. That it appears that way now is probably a reflection of the harsh political divide in the country. Republicans have been strong supporters of the National Popular Vote plan. For example, then-Congressman George H.W. Bush (R-Texas) said on September 18, 1969, in support of the direct popular election of the President:
“This legislation has a great deal to commend it. It will correct the wrongs of the present mechanism by calling for the direct election of the President and Vice President. Yet, in spite of these drastic reforms, the bill is not detrimental to our federal system or one that will change the departmentalized and local nature of voting in this country.”
NPVIC is a non-partisan effort, un-affiliated with any political party. The NPVIC Advisory Board includes former Senators Jake Garn (R–U.T.), Birch Bayh (D–IN), and David Durenberger (R–M.N.); former Congressmen John Anderson (R–IL, I), John Buchanan (R–AL), Tom Campbell (R–C.A.), and Tom Downey (D–N.Y.). Other supporters include former Cong. Tom Tancredo (R-CO), former Governor Howard Dean (D–V.T.), former Governor Jim Edgar (R–I.L.), and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R–G.A.).
NPVIC makes every vote equal, something our current plan does not do.
