Kerby Anderson

Maine recently voted to join the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact. This has been an attempt get enough states to pledge that they will send electors to Washington to vote for the president based upon the popular vote. Essentially, it would require electors to ignore how their state voted and merely cast their vote for the winner of the popular vote. It has been an attempt to change the way we elect the president without a Constitutional amendment.

I first wrote about the National Popular Vote initiative back in 2008, when there were two states who joined the compact. By the end of the year, four states had joined. I haven’t written about it since 2019 because there hasn’t been any significant movement until last year when Minnesota joined and now Maine has joined.

So far, there are 17 states and Washington, DC that have joined the compact. It only will go into effect when enough states holding 270 Electoral College votes approve the plan. The current total is 209 Electoral votes.

As I have discussed in previous commentaries, the attempt to dismantle the Electoral College is a bad idea. Just look at the map that has been created to illustrate the impact big states and big cities would have on the outcome. The framers from small states feared they would always be outvoted by the large states.

Because of third parties, many of our presidential elections in the last few decades have not had any candidate with a popular vote majority. The Electoral College gives them a majority. It is also worth remembering that Abraham Lincoln won less than 40 percent of the popular vote and relied on the Electoral College for his authority.

The National Popular Vote Interstate Compact won’t have an impact on this election, but it might have a significant impact in future elections.