Wednesday's Congressional Session Will Show Why We Need a National Popular Vote for President
The uncertainty and instability caused by the current state-by-state winner-take-all method of electing the President will be on full display on Wednesday, when Congress meets to count the electoral votes from the November 2020 election.
The only reason the 2020 presidential election is still in turmoil -- after 2 months -- is that if a mere 21,461 voters had changed their minds (5,229 in Arizona, 5,890 in Georgia, and 10,342 in Wisconsin), Joe Biden would have been defeated, despite leading nationally by 7,059,800 votes.
The current system repeatedly generates unnecessary uncertainty, recounts, and litigation, despite a clear national popular vote winner.
If 59,393 voters in Ohio in 2004 had changed their minds, President Bush would have lost re-election, despite leading the national popular vote by over 3 million votes.
The current state-by-state winner-take-all system has also enabled 5 of our 45 Presidents to come into office without winning the most popular votes nationwide.
The chaos caused by the current state-by-state winner-take-all system is also the reason that presidential candidates only pay attention to the concerns of voters in closely divided battleground states. In 2020, 2016, and 2012, a dozen battleground states received 96%, 94%, and 100% of all of the general-election campaign events, respectively. In these three elections, 25 states did not receive even one campaign event, and six additional states received only one. The politically irrelevant spectator states included almost all of the small states, rural states, agricultural states, Southern states, Western states, and Northeastern states.
Presidential elections do not have to be this way.
The U.S. Constitution (Article II) gives states exclusive control over awarding their electoral votes, saying: “Each State shall appoint, in such Manner as the Legislature thereof may direct, a Number of Electors….”
The National Popular Vote bill will guarantee the Presidency to the candidate who receives the most popular votes in all 50 states and the District of Columbia.
The National Popular Vote interstate compact will go into effect when enacted by states with a majority of the presidential electors—that is, 270 of 538. After the compact goes into effect, all of the electoral votes from all of the enacting states will be awarded to the candidate who received the most popular votes in all 50 states and the District of Columbia. Thus, the national popular vote winner will be supported by a majority of the Electoral College, and thus become President.
Please write your state legislators and ask them to pass the National Popular Vote bill.
