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Overview
Nov 06 2008
Voters in many states dream of the day when their vote for president will count just as much as those of voters in the handful of battleground states such as Florida and Ohio. Now, with the closeness of the 2008 presidential primary and the proportional delegate allocation rules that most state parties followed in the Democratic primaries, voters are getting a taste of what it would mean if every vote did matter – the result being record-breaking turnout numbers.
If every vote counted in the November presidential elections, we could expect similar broad-based gains in voter turnout. Voters are well aware of whether or not their votes count, and this is evidenced in polls that show wide, bi-partisan support of approximately 70% for a national popular vote.
Studies emphasize that not only does the traditional Electoral College lead to elections narrowly focusing on a few states, but that the problem is in fact getting worse.One result is that critical issues for non-swing states are given less focus in national debate. An example is the civil rights movement, where the historic shift away from heavily African-American swing states has paralleled the narrowing discussion of civil rights in campaigns and the national dialogue.
The campaign to make every vote count in presidential general elections is focused on passing an interstate compact where states agree to apportion their presidential electors to the winner of the national popular vote (NPV). The compact will become effective when a majority of electors are included under the agreement. The movement to enact this compact is rapidly gaining steam in states around the country – Maryland, New Jersey, Hawaii, and Illinois have enacted the compact and it has passed 18 state legislative chambers.
From The Dispatch
Fact Sheets
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National Popular Vote Factsheet - One page description of the national popular vote and arguments in favor from NPV, Inc.
In the News
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WI: Op-ed - Using popular vote to elect president is the way to go - Capital Times - A national movement is gaining steam to change the way we elect our president. <p> “National Popular Vote” would change the way Electoral College votes are allocated to guarantee that the presidency goes to the candidate who receives the most votes in an election. </p> <p> And, no, it isn’t a direct reaction to the 2000 election, when Al Gore beat George W. Bush in the popular vote, but lost the election because of the peculiarities of our Electoral College. Rather, it has broad bipartisan support ranging from the likes of Democrat Birch Bayh of Indiana to Republican Jake Garn of Utah, who believe strongly that not only should the candidate who wins the popular vote get the job, but that the current system shortchanges all too many states during the presidential campaign. </p>
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Let's Make Every Vote Count - The Nation - Quick: When did we elect the President last year? If you said November 4th, you're more than a month off. Try December 15th. That's when the electoral college convened in each state to formally ‘elect' Barack Obama president. Despite overturning the popular vote in 2000, efforts to establish direct election of the president– which would require amending the Constitution – have been unable to gain traction in Congress. Now two election reform organizations, relative newcomer National Popular Vote and the more established, have a promising proposal to use the electoral college for the very end it was intended to circumvent.
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Mass. lawmakers to ponder national popular vote bill - <p> Boston.com - Should the winner of the presidential election be determined by the national popular vote and not by the Electoral College system? </p> <p> A coalition of good government and civil rights activists thinks so, and they're gathering at the State House today to outline the National Popular Vote bill at a news conference before testifying for it at a hearing of the Joint Committee on Election Laws. </p> <p> Under the proposed bill, all of the state's electoral votes would be awarded to the candidate who receives the most popular votes nationally. </p>
Resource Organizations
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FairVote - FairVote acts to transform our elections to achieve universal access to participation, a full spectrum of meaningful ballot choices and majority rule with fair representation for all. As a catalyst for change, we build support for innovative strategies to win a constitutionally protected right to vote, universal voter registration, a national popular vote for president, instant runoff voting and proportional representation.
