Yeah, it felt cowardly to me - and it’s not like the law requires him to vote for tRump, so he was even being cowardly in a situation that had no consequences for him. “I’m taking a principled stand! But not that principled…”
Not sure who you’re referring to as a “shitposting troll”, but that ain’t me. No trolls here.
Anyway, NPV isn’t some liberal conspiracy to hijack the Presidential election. It cuts both ways. Had California and her other “blue sisters” been under NPV in 2004, all of their votes would have gone to Bush/Cheney. So if any Democratic partisans are hoping this will be a way to lock up the White House, their plans will backfire soon enough. The canard of a “permanent party” owning the White House has been exploded over and over again.
As far as Congressional approval: This is murky, I’ll admit. Some say NPV does need it, others say it doesn’t. Depends on what Constitutional scholar you talk to. It will DEFINITELY be challenged in court, all the way up to the Supreme Court, certainly. Regardless, there is a precedent. States are free to allocate the Electoral votes as they see fit. It’s up to their state legislators. As you know, Nebraska and Maine allocate their votes by Congressional district. But this does boil down to a States’ Rights issue. And that’s a tough thing to oppose if you’re a conservative.
And you’re also working on the premise that Blue California and Red Wyoming are 100% Blue and 100% Red, respectively. They’re not. Nor are urban/rural areas 100% one way or the other. There is a huge diversity. Get enough of a minority vote in your “enemy territory”, you could very well swing the election your way. Because every vote counts now.
Also, NPV only applies to the states that sign up for it. If Wyoming or whoever wants to keep their winner-take-all by state popular vote, they’re free to do so. Again, this is a states’ rights issues.
I’m not claiming for a second this will be an easy thing to pass. This whole notion was cooked up in 2006…and 10 years later, we’re up to 11 states. This will be a hard, hard slog. But man, I’m not going to just throw my hands up in the air and say “It’s impossible!” I’m not going to be a Comment Board Cynic and just give up. I’m actually going to pick my butt off my seat, tear myself away from the keyboard, and work on making this a reality. Maybe I’ll never see this in my lifetime. But I still gotta try. Because I want to make this country more democratic, with a lowercase “d”. We can’t keep having every flippin’ election decided by Florida and Ohio. There are 48 other states who count, too.
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Well, maybe.
According to nationalpopularvote.com:
[The compact] has been enacted into law in 11 states with 165 electoral votes (CA, DC, HI, IL, MA, MD, NJ, NY, RI, VT, WA). It will take effect when enacted by states with 105 more electoral votes. Most recently, the bill was passed by a bipartisan 40–16 vote in the Republican-controlled Arizona House, 28–18 in Republican-controlled Oklahoma Senate, 57–4 in Republican-controlled New York Senate, and 37–21 in Democratic-controlled Oregon House. It has passed on house in 12 states with 96 electoral votes (AR, AZ, CO, CT, DE, ME, MI, NC, NM, NV, OK, OR).
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Sorry, I didn’t mean you. It’s a common refrain on less enlightened forums.
@Footface: I stand corrected!
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Right on, cheers for the clarification. Anyway, no one is convinced immediately over comment posts. I would just recommend we all (including myself) give this issue a good, hard think-over with several trips to the library and face-to-face (remember “meat space”?) discussions with other people interested in this issue. If you still believe the Electoral College as it stands now is for the best, I respect your opinion and only make one demand of you: VOTE!
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