Maryland Senate Passes National Popular Vote Bill

The National Popular Vote bill has passed the Maryland Senate. The favorable action in Maryland follows the passage in the Arkansas House earlier this month, passage by the Hawaii Senate in February, and passage by the Colorado Senate in January.

The Maryland bill now goes to the Maryland House of Delegates.

The National Popular Vote bill currently has 266 sponsors in 47 states. Our web site at www.NationalPopularVote.com shows the status of the bill in each state.

The National Popular Vote bill would guarantee that the presidential candidate who receives the most votes in all 50 states will win the Presidency. This state-based plan is a constitutional and politically practical way to implement nationwide popular election of the President—a goal supported by an overwhelming majority of Americans (70% in recent polls).

The New York Times endorsed National Popular Vote's plan by calling it an "an ingenious solution." that "Legislatures across the country should get behind." The plan has also been endorsed by the Chicago Sun Times, Los Angeles Times, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, and Sacramento Bee. The plan has been endorsed by Common Cause and FairVote.

Under the National Popular Vote bill, all of the state's electoral votes would be awarded to the presidential candidate who receives the most popular votes in all 50 states and the District of Columbia. 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).

The National Popular Vote bill is described in detail in our 620-page book Every Vote Equal: A State-Based Plan for Electing the President by National Popular Vote (available for free reading or downloading from our web site).

The National Advisory Board of National Popular Vote includes former congressmen John Anderson (R-Illinois and later independent presidential candidate), John Buchanan (R-Alabama-the first Republican elected to represent Birmingham), Tom Campbell (R-California), and Tom Downey (D-New York), and former Senators Birch Bayh (D-Indiana), David Durenberger (R-Minnesota), and Jake Garn (R-Utah).

Forty-eight states use the "winner-take-all" rule that awards all of its electoral votes to the presidential candidate who receives the most popular votes in each state.

The main shortcoming of the current system of electing the President is that presidential candidates have no reason to poll, visit, advertise, organize, campaign, or worry about the concerns of voters of states that they cannot possibly win or lose. Presidential candidates do not poll in two-thirds of the states, do not visit two-thirds of the states, and do not need to worry about the issues of concern to voters in two-thirds of the states in order to be elected. Instead, candidates concentrate their attention on a small handful of closely divided "battleground" states. Presidential candidates concentrate over two-thirds of their advertising money and campaign visits in just five states, and over 99% of their advertising money in just 16 states. The spectator states in presidential elections include 12 of the 13 least populous states (all but New Hampshire); 6 of the nation's 11 most populous states (California, Texas, New York, Illinois, New Jersey, North Carolina, and Georgia) and most of the other states.

A second shortcoming of the current system is that a candidate can win the Presidency without winning the most popular votes nationwide. A shift of 60,000 votes in Ohio would have elected Kerry as President-even though President Bush was ahead by 3.5 million votes nationwide in 2004. A shift of a handful of votes in one or two states would have elected the second-place candidate in five of the last 12 presidential elections.

Twelve of 13 smallest states are almost totally ignored in presidential elections because they are politically non-competitive. Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, North Dakota, South Dakota, and Alaska regularly vote Republican, and Rhode Island, Delaware, Hawaii, Vermont, Maine, and DC regularly vote Democratic. These 12 states together contain 11 million people. Because of the two electoral-vote bonus that each state receives, these 12 non-competitive small states have 40 electoral votes. However, the two-vote bonus is an entirely illusory advantage. Ohio has 11 million people and has "only" 20 electoral votes. As we all know, the 11 million people in Ohio are the center of attention in presidential campaigns, while the 11 million people in the 12 non-competitive small states are utterly irrelevant. Nationwide election of the President would make all of the voters in the 12 smallest states as important as an Ohio voter.

The Founding Fathers gave the states exclusive and plenary (complete) control over the manner of awarding of their electoral votes. The states may change their state laws concerning the awarding of their electoral votes at any time. The winner-take-all rule is not in the U.S. Constitution. It was used by only 3 states in the nation's first presidential election. Maine and Nebraska currently award electoral votes by congressional district. The National Popular Vote bill is state legislation that would enact an interstate compact called the "Agreement Among the States to Elect the President by Nationwide Popular Vote." The current system was not installed by a federal constitutional amendment, and there is no need for an amendment to change the state's current laws on allocating electoral votes.