WASHINGTON, Oct 13, 2010 (BUSINESS WIRE) — Yesterday, District of Columbia Mayor Adrian Fenty signed the National Popular Vote bill, adding the District of Columbia to a growing list of jurisdictions that have voted to join the Agreement Among the States to elect the President by National Popular Vote.

"The purpose of our bill is to ensure that the Presidency goes to the candidate who wins the most popular votes in all fifty states and the District of Columbia and that every vote throughout the country, in every election, counts equally when electing the President of the United States," said John Koza, Chair of National Popular Vote. "We are pleased Mayor Fenty signed the bill and sided with the vast majority of District of Columbia voters, indeed voters throughout America, in supporting the National Popular Vote plan." Recent polling points to overwhelming majorities of voters in the District of Columbia (76%), Idaho (77%), Nebraska (74%), South Dakota (75%), Kentucky (80%) and several other states favor the National Popular Vote plan over current winner-take-all rules (i.e. awarding all of a state's electoral votes to the candidate who receives the most popular votes in each state). Voters feel like spectators in the current system because it causes Presidential candidates to ignore the states where one of the presidential candidates is comfortably ahead or hopelessly behind. For complete polling data visit www.nationalpopularvote.com.

"Our state-based plan to elect the President by National Popular Vote enjoys consistent support from across the country," continued Koza. "Republicans, Democrats and Independents favor National Popular Vote over the current system by a large margin and across gender, age and ideological lines. The American people want every vote to be equal and they want the candidate for President, who gets the most votes, to win the election." In the recent 52𔃅 New York State Senate vote, Republicans supported the bill by a 22–5 margin (with 3 not voting) and Democrats supported it by a 30–2 margin.

Under the National Popular Vote bill, all the electoral votes from the enacting states will be awarded to the presidential candidate who receives the most popular votes in all fifty states (and DC). The bill will take effect only when enacted by states possessing a majority of the electoral votes — that is enough electoral votes to elect a President (270 of 538). National Popular vote preserves the Electoral College, by guaranteeing a majority of electors to the candidate who wins the most popular votes in all fifty states.

The bill has now been enacted by states possessing 76 electoral votes — 28 percent of the 270 necessary to activate the law (Hawaii, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, District of Columbia, and Washington state). The bill has passed 31 legislative bodies in 21 jurisdictions (Arkansas, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, District of Columbia, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, and Washington).