Wed Oct 24, 2012, 12:06 PM

Question on electoral college in Mass.

I remembered that MA passed a law of some sort that said all the states electoral votes would be awarded to the candidate who wins the national popular vote.

I found an article on it from 2010 here: http://www.boston.com/news/local/breaking_news/2010/07/mass_legislatur.html

Under the law, which was enacted by the House last week, all 12 of the state's electoral votes would be awarded to the candidate who receives the most votes nationally........Opponents say the current system works. They are concerned about a possible scenario where Candidate X wins nationally, but Candidate Y has won in Massachusetts. In that case, all of the state's 12 electoral votes would go to Candidate X, the candidate who was not supported by Massachusetts voters.

I guess there are similar laws in the states of Illinois, New Jersey, Hawaii, Maryland, and Washington

An organization that pushes for electoral college reform notes that the bill passed and was signed by Gov Patrick.

http://www.nationalpopularvote.com/pages/states.php?s=MA

Is this the case? Does MA have to give their electoral votes to whoever gets the popular vote? Thanks

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4 replies	Author	Time	Post
Question on electoral college in Mass. (Original post)	Firebirds01	Oct 2012	OP
I don't think that any of those state laws take effect...	FBaggins	Oct 2012	#1
Yeah...	MSMITH33156	Oct 2012	#4
No. The deal the states made is that would happen only if enough other states signed on.	Orangepeel	Oct 2012	#2
Not enough states have signed on to the National Popular Vote initiative ...	frazzled	Oct 2012	#3

Response to Firebirds01 (Original post)

Wed Oct 24, 2012, 12:09 PM

FBaggins (11,619 posts)

1. I don't think that any of those state laws take effect...

... until a number of states representing an EV majority also implement the change.

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Response to FBaggins (Reply #1)

Wed Oct 24, 2012, 12:11 PM

MSMITH33156 (329 posts)

4. Yeah...

it's basically part of a movement to undermine the electoral college. But the laws only trigger if a certain number of states pass similar laws. Otherwise, these states are just disenfranchising their own voters.

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Response to Firebirds01 (Original post)

Wed Oct 24, 2012, 12:10 PM

Orangepeel (12,701 posts)

2. No. The deal the states made is that would happen only if enough other states signed on.

Supporters are campaigning, state by state, to get such bills enacted. Once states accounting for a majority of the electoral votes (or 270 of 538) have enacted the laws, the candidate winning the most votes nationally would be assured a majority of Electoral College votes. That would hold true no matter how the other states vote and how their electoral votes are distributed.

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Response to Firebirds01 (Original post)

Wed Oct 24, 2012, 12:10 PM

frazzled (9,139 posts)

3. Not enough states have signed on to the National Popular Vote initiative ...

so no, Massachusetts' electoral votes will not go to the winner of the national popular vote. They'll go to whoever wins in MA. (This is also the case for any other of the states that have signed onto that popular vote initiative.)

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