Virginia signs national popular vote bill into law, joining interstate compact with 17 other states and District of Columbia
A national majority vote for president is one step closer to reality after the Virginia governor, Abigail Spanberger, signed the national popular vote bill into law, joining an interstate compact with 17 other states and the District of Columbia.
Under the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact, states would assign their presidential electors to the winner of the popular vote, regardless of the results within the state. The compact takes effect when states representing a majority of electoral votes – 270 of 538 – pass the legislation and thus would determine the winner of the presidential contest. With Virginia, the compact now has 222 electors.
Every state that has so far enacted the compact has Democratic electoral majorities, including California, New York and Illinois. But legislation has been introduced in enough states to reach the 270-elector threshold, including swing states like Arizona, Michigan, Nevada, New Hampshire, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.
I hope it accounts for what happens if those States’ votes equal/exceed 270 at one time but then electoral fuckery occurs and they drop below that number due to their bullshit census tallies. Because we all know Repubs will pull it in a heartbeat.
1990s problems require 1990s solutions.
This compact is extremely unlikely to ever be enforceable. The ensuing court cases would make 2000 seem minor.
The Constitution gives the power to the states to appoint and direct their electors.
Interstate compacts require congressional approval. This one doesn’t have that. There’s also a good argument that a state giving all it’s votes to someone the state didn’t vote for in the majority violates the rights of it’s citizens to a republican form of government.
And the Supreme Court has already ruled 3 different times that congressional approval for interstate compacts is implicit, unless the compact shifts power from federal to the state.
Doesn’t really fix anything as long as it’s a binary option, where all power goes to the winner.
To improve democracy in USA, USA needs a parliamentary system, that allows representation by many parties, and a majority in that system decides who forms the government, and also has the power to overturn the government.As interesting as this sounds - I honestly can’t see it working.
Can you imagine how Californians would react if the state gave its votes to Trump after he won the popular vote?
I imagine a democracy not being run by slave-era tools like the electoral college.
