Electoral College opponents must be desperate to get the support of Republicans. No matter what they do, they can’t convince a red state to buy into their plan to effectively eliminate America’s unique presidential system. The National Popular Vote organization has been pushing its anti-Electoral College legislation for years, but so far only blue states have signed on.
And actually, a lot of blue states have signed on. National Popular Vote, or NPV, has the support of 11 blue states plus the District of Columbia. Each has approved NPV’s interstate compact, agreeing to pledge its presidential electors to the winner of the national popular vote instead of the state’s popular vote. The compact goes into effect only after a critical mass of states approves it. The signatory states so far control 172 electoral votes among them, meaning that NPV needs only 98 more electoral votes to take effect.
The NPV compact is an attempted end run around Article V of the Constitution, effectively eliminating the Electoral College without the bother of a constitutional amendment. That end run is much easier than the formal constitutional amendment process, which would require the support of 38 states.
The compact might present a lower bar, but NPV is still having difficulty. Blue states do not hold enough electoral votes on their own. NPV needs at least one red state on board if its plan is to pass. A red state would bring with it an added bonus: NPV can pretend that its legislation — funded and promoted by liberals — is bipartisan.
Heck, even a purplish red state like Michigan will do.
NPV has tried everything. It has hired Republican lobbyists to make pitches to red state legislatures. Those lobbyists pretend that NPV can achieve the national popular vote system specifically rejected at the Constitutional Convention, but somehow still be compatible with the Constitution. They tell legislators that sidestepping the Electoral College will bring more attention to “flyover” red states, ignoring the inconvenient truth that 20 percent of Democrat Hillary Clinton’s national popular vote total came from only two big blue states, New York and California.
Such dynamics would get worse, not better, if a national popular vote were achieved.
Perhaps NPV’s desperation is reaching new levels. Last month, the Institute for Research on Presidential Elections, which is affiliated with NPV, flew Republican state legislators from Michigan to Hawaii. (Incidentally, IRPE has also invited journalists and commentators to all-expense-paid seminars in Aruba and Key West.) These legislators say they went for the education, not the beaches, perhaps that’s why some of them brought their spouses too?
Making matters worse, the “educational session” presented only one side of the Electoral College debate. How educational can it be when anti–Electoral College activists attend such junkets and pro-Electoral College academics are given a cold shoulder?
Education about the Electoral College is a wonderful thing. If Michigan legislators were serious about it, they would find a university or a conference room in Lansing and invite both sides of the debate for a full and fair discussion. They could hear about the benefits of the Electoral College: The system encourages coalition-building and working together. The state-by-state election process is harder to hack and manipulate, making elections more difficult to steal. Importantly, the Electoral College has helped the country to heal during divisive times, as it did in the years after the Civil War.
Unsurprisingly, Republican legislators returned from Hawaii and promptly introduced the National Popular Vote legislation in Michigan. That bill was introduced on Sept. 5, and hearings were held within 24 hours. NPV representatives were on hand to testify. Defenders of the Electoral College had no notice of the hearing and thus did not attend.
Fortunately, not every Republican is on board with NPV’s attempts to skirt the Constitution. Michigan House Speaker Tom Leonard says he will not let NPV move forward while he is speaker. Unfortunately, even that protection won’t last long: Leonard is term-limited from seeking re-election this year.
NPV pretends to be bipartisan, committed to serving the needs of the nation. In reality, NPV’s plan is funded by liberals and designed to strike at the heart of America’s unique presidential election process.
NPV is a wolf in sheep’s clothing. If the plan were actually good for the country, then perhaps one-sided “educational” trips to tropical locations wouldn’t be needed.
Tara Ross is the author of The Indispensable Electoral College: How the Founders’ Plan Saves Our Country from Mob Rule.
