This content was originally published by the Longmont Observer and is licensed under a Creative Commons license.
Are you frustrated with the Electoral College process in our elections?
Would you like to see that process improved to be fairer and easier to
understand while still being constitutionally sound? Where every vote
counts?
A bill to do just that, SB19-042 The National Popular Vote Interstate
Compact (NPV IC), will be debated in the Colorado Senate, possibly next
week.
The bill would change the way states allocate their Electoral votes. It
is Constitutionally within State's rights to decide this. Most states
now have a statewide winner-take-all system, in which the state’s entire
Electoral vote total goes to the statewide popular vote winner. So, all
the Electoral votes go to the winning candidate of that state even if
nearly half the state’s voters vote for the other candidate. Those who
vote for the loser often feel as though their vote doesn’t count. With
NPV, all the state’s Electoral votes would go to the winner of the
nationwide popular vote. No matter how their state votes, all votes are
counted toward a national vote total.
The NPV-IC would make it so that people vote as citizens of the United
States rather than citizens of their state.
The NPV IC is a legal agreement among states to collectively award all
their Electoral votes to the presidential candidate who wins the popular
vote nationwide. It is a means of ensuring that the candidate with the
most votes nationwide will become the president.
A total of 270 Electoral votes are required for majority control of the
Electoral College. The compact takes effect when states with a total of
270 Electoral votes have joined the NPV-IC.
I urge you to write or call your state legislators right away in support
of this bill. Go to https://www.nationalpopularvote.com/write, or
http://leg.colorado.gov/legislators.
You can learn more at http://www.coloradonpv.org.
Ingrid Moore is a Longmont resident.
