Agreement Among the States to Elect the President by National Popular Vote Could Be Soon [View all]
The National Popular Vote bill has been enacted by 11 jurisdictions possessing 165 electoral votes61% of the 270 electoral votes necessary to activate it, including four small jurisdictions (RI, VT, HI, DC), three medium- size states (MD, MA, WA), and four big states (NJ, IL, NY, CA). The bill has passed a total of 33 legislative chambers in 22 statesmost recently by a bipartisan 4016 vote in the Arizona House, a 2818 vote in the Oklahoma Senate, a 574 vote in New York Senate, and a 3721 vote in Oregon House. A total of 3,055 state legislators have either sponsored or cast a recorded vote for the bill.
The shortcomings of the current system of electing the President stem from state winner-take-all statutes (i.e., state laws that award all of a states electoral votes to the candidate receiving the most popular votes in each separate state).
Because of these state winner-take-all statutes, presidential candidates have no reason to pay attention to the issues of concern to voters in states where the statewide outcome is a foregone conclusion. As shown on the map, two-thirds of the 2012 general-election campaign events (176 of 253) were in just 4 states (Ohio, Florida, Virginia, and Iowa). Thirty-eight states were ignored.
State winner-take-all statutes adversely affect governance. Battleground states receive 7% more federal grants than spectator states, twice as many presidential disaster declarations, more Superfund enforcement exemptions, and more No Child Left Behind law exemptions.
Also, state winner-take-all statutes have allowed candidates to win the Presidency without winning the most popular votes nationwide in four of our 57 presidential elections1 in 14 times. A shift of 59,393 votes in Ohio in 2004 would have elected John Kerry despite President Bushs nationwide lead of over 3,000,000 votes. A shift of 214,393 votes in 2012 would have elected Mitt Romney despite President Obamas nationwide lead of almost 5,000,000 votes.
The U.S. Constitution (Article II, Section 1) gives the states exclusive control over awarding their electoral votes: Each State shall appoint, in such Manner as the Legislature thereof may direct, a Number of Electors.... The winner-take-all rule was used by only three states in 1789.
The National Popular Vote interstate compact would not take effect until enacted by states possessing a majority of the electoral votesthat is, enough to elect a President (270 of 538). Under the compact, the national popular vote winner would be the candidate who received the most popular votes from all 50 states (and DC) on Election Day. When the Electoral College meets in mid-December, the national popular vote winner would receive all of the electoral votes of the enacting states.
The bill ensures that every vote, in every state, will matter in every presidential election.
The National Popular Vote bill preserves the Electoral College and state control of elections.
http://www.nationalpopularvote.com/written-explanation