lpetrich
Contributor
On May 24, 2023, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz signed into law a big bill that contains the state's joining the National Popular Vote iniitiative for the election of the President. That makes his state join fifteen others and the District of Columbia in doing so.
If enough states and territories ratify it, with at least 270 electoral votes among them, then the NPV will go into effect, and the participants will award their electoral votes to the winner of the popular vote for the Presidency. With MN joining, the initiative has 205 EV's and has 65 EV's to go.
So far, the states that have ratified the NPV are reliably Democratic states and some swing states, and I think that the remaining NPV possibilities are all swing states -- Republicans disdain the NPV.
Its ratification will mean the end of EC misfires, cases where the popular vote and the electoral vote differ. There have been five cases of this over the US's history, in 1824, 1876, 1888, 2000, and 2016, two of them in the last few decades.
Why an agreement between states? Because amending the US Constitution is very difficult. Passing an amendment requires a vote of at least 2/3 of both houses of Congress, or else a Constitutional Convention, and ratifying it requires a vote of at least 3/4 of the states.
If enough states and territories ratify it, with at least 270 electoral votes among them, then the NPV will go into effect, and the participants will award their electoral votes to the winner of the popular vote for the Presidency. With MN joining, the initiative has 205 EV's and has 65 EV's to go.
So far, the states that have ratified the NPV are reliably Democratic states and some swing states, and I think that the remaining NPV possibilities are all swing states -- Republicans disdain the NPV.
Its ratification will mean the end of EC misfires, cases where the popular vote and the electoral vote differ. There have been five cases of this over the US's history, in 1824, 1876, 1888, 2000, and 2016, two of them in the last few decades.
Why an agreement between states? Because amending the US Constitution is very difficult. Passing an amendment requires a vote of at least 2/3 of both houses of Congress, or else a Constitutional Convention, and ratifying it requires a vote of at least 3/4 of the states.