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November 3, 2009 — "The promoters of a National Popular Vote, as they're calling themselves, have come up with an elegant finesse. Instead of trying to change the Constitution, they propose to apply it, one bit in particular: Article II, Section 1, which instructs each state to "appoint" its Presidential electors "in such Manner as the Legislature thereof may direct." Here's how the plan would work. One by one, legislature by legislature, state law by state law, individual states would pledge themselves to an interstate compact under which they would agree to award their electoral votes to the nationwide winner of the popular vote. The compact would take effect only when enough states had joined it to elect a President-that is, enough to cast a majority of the five hundred and thirty-eight electoral votes. And then, presto! All of a sudden, the people of all fifty states plus the District of Columbia are empowered to elect their President the same way they elect their governors, mayors, senators, and congressmen. We still have the Electoral College, with its colorful eighteenth-century rituals, but it can no longer do any damage. It becomes a tourist attraction, like the British monarchy."
- Hendrik Hertzberg, The New Yorker, February 27, 2006
The Electoral College system as we know it may soon change. Demos and FairVote are proud to present a forum with The New Yorker magazine's Hendrik Hertzberg, National Popular Vote's Chris Pearson and FairVote's Rob Richie to discuss the future of the National Popular Vote initiative.
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