Reply #5: The National Popular Vote bill [View All]

[mvymvy]

The National Popular Vote bill would guarantee the Presidency
to the candidate who receives the most popular votes in all 50
states (and DC). 

Every vote, everywhere, would be politically relevant and
equal in presidential elections. 

The bill would take effect only when enacted, in identical
form, by states possessing a majority of the electoral
votes--that is, enough electoral votes to elect a President
(270 of 538). When the bill comes into effect, all the
electoral votes from those states would be awarded to the
presidential candidate who receives the most popular votes in
all 50 states (and DC). 

The Constitution gives every state the power to allocate its
electoral votes for president, as well as to change state law
on how those votes are awarded. 

The bill is currently endorsed by over 1,659 state legislators
(in 48 states) who have sponsored and/or cast recorded votes
in favor of the bill. 

In Gallup polls since 1944, only about 20% of the public has
supported the current system of awarding all of a state's
electoral votes to the presidential candidate who receives the
most votes in each separate state (with about 70% opposed and
about 10% undecided). The recent Washington Post, Kaiser
Family Foundation, and Harvard University poll shows 72%
support for direct nationwide election of the President. This
national result is similar to recent polls in closely divided
battleground states: Colorado-- 68%, Iowa --75%, Michigan--
73%, Missouri-- 70%, New Hampshire-- 69%, Nevada-- 72%, New
Mexico-- 76%, North Carolina-- 74%, Ohio-- 70%, Pennsylvania
-- 78%, Virginia -- 74%, and Wisconsin -- 71%; in smaller
states (3 to 5 electoral votes): Delaware --75%, Maine -- 77%,
Nebraska -- 74%, New Hampshire --69%, Nevada -- 72%, New
Mexico -- 76%, Rhode Island -- 74%, and Vermont -- 75%;  in
Southern and border states: Arkansas --80%, Kentucky -- 80%,
Mississippi --77%, Missouri -- 70%, North Carolina -- 74%, and
Virginia -- 74%; and in other states polled: California --
70%, Connecticut -- 74% , Massachusetts -- 73%, New York --
79%, Washington -- 77%, and West Virginia- 81%.  Support is
strong in every partisan and demographic group surveyed.

The National Popular Vote bill has passed 29 state legislative
chambers, in 19 small, medium-small, medium, and large states,
including one house in Arkansas, Connecticut, Delaware, Maine,
Michigan, Nevada, New Mexico, North Carolina, and Oregon,  and
both houses in California, Colorado, Hawaii, Illinois, New
Jersey, Maryland, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Vermont, and
Washington. The bill has been enacted by Hawaii, Illinois, New
Jersey, Maryland, and Washington. These five states possess 61
electoral votes -- 23% of the 270 necessary to bring the law
into effect.

See http://www.NationalPopularVote.com