Think that doesn’t matter? Besides campaign spending dollars and the value of citizen participation, federal spending in battleground states is disproportionately larger than in other states. And more than 90% of presidential campaign activities occur in just 12 states today. The winner take all system further means that most presidential campaigning happens in a handful of “close” states such as Ohio, Florida, and Pennsylvania. Research shows that these scenarios significantly decrease the perceived legitimacy of winning candidates, adding instability to the political system that prides itself on democracy. This inversion of the popular vote has happened five times in our history, including two of the last six presidential elections. Because electors aren’t directly tied to a state’s population-small states have a disproportionate number of electors-and the winner take all system exaggerates the popular vote, a candidate who loses the popular vote nationally can win an election. Most states have chosen to adopt a winner take all system that gives all electoral votes to the candidate who wins the popular vote within its state, regardless of margin. Each state is designated a number of electors equal to the number of senators and representatives in Congress, and each state may choose how to award those electors in an election. In the current Electoral College system, the presidency is awarded to the candidate who wins at least 270 of 538 electoral votes. Legislation on the compact is now pending in 10 states that control 124 electoral votes. Because these states control a majority of the 538 total electoral votes, that would guarantee that the popular vote winner would become president. Should the compact be adopted by additional states controlling just 65 electoral votes, it would automatically go into effect. It most recently was adopted in May 2023 with bipartisan support in Minnesota. The compact initially was regarded as a long shot, but since 2006, it has been adopted by 16 states and Washington, D.C., totaling 205 electoral votes. Sign up for our In-House Counsel newsletter, showcasing the news general counsel needs from Bloomberg Law. Massachusetts has changed methods 11 times, before finally settling on the winner take all system. By 1880, all states were using winner take all, though Maine and Nebraska subsequently adopted a district by district approach. All three had repealed them by 1800.īut as a few states began to adopt the winner take all approach statewide to garner more influence, other states were forced to make the change as well. Only three states used the winner take all system in the first presidential election, in 1789. James Madison even proposed a constitutional amendment to that effect. The Founding Fathers took no formal position on how states should allocate electors, though Thomas Jefferson once noted that “all agreed” that selection by popular vote within each congressional district was the best, and after the 1820 election. States have complete control under the Constitution to allocate their electors by any method they choose, and therefore they can adopt the compact simply by passing legislation to that effect. Until the compact’s conditions are met, all states award electoral votes in their current manner. The compact goes into effect only when states that control a majority (270) of electoral votes have adopted the compact. Under the compact, states who join pledge all the electors to the candidate who receives the most popular votes. This is a laborious process that requires either congressional action or a constitutional convention to generate a proposal, followed by adoption of three-quarters of states.Įnter the National Popular Vote Compact, introduced in 2006. But until recently, no one believed that the Electoral College system could be changed without a constitutional amendment. It recently got one step closer to reality.Ī democratic election should follow three basic principles: Whoever gets the most votes wins, every vote should be equal, and candidates should be incentivized to campaign in all 50 states. Slowly but surely, there’s a growing bipartisan national movement that could fundamentally alter how we elect the US president, all without amending the Constitution. Politics increasingly is driving the law.
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