Legislation to implement the National Popular Vote plan, a multi-state
agreement to establish a national popular vote for President, continued
moving forward in California today with approval by the Senate
Elections Committee by a vote of 3-1. AB 2948, authored by Assemblyman
Tom Umberg (D -Anaheim), already passed the California Assembly on May
30. The legislation would enact the “Agreement Among the States to
Elect the President by National Popular Vote.”
Identical legislation has passed the Colorado state senate and is
pending in Louisiana, Missouri, Illinois, and New York – where it was
introduced last month by five Republicans. Sponsors have also been
announced in Vermont and Arizona.
“This vote is good news for the people of California and the nation, as
it recognizes that presidential elections ignore far too many voters.
Under the National Popular Vote plan, every vote, in every state, will
be equal, and candidates will campaign for votes everywhere, not just a
small number of battleground states,” said National Popular Vote
president Barry Fadem. “We will continue to work with Republicans,
Democrats and independents in every state in the nation to make this
plan a reality, and give all Americans an equal say in presidential
elections.”
“California needs to be more than a cash stop and photo op for those
seeking to lead our country,” said Assemblyman Tom Umberg, Chair of the
Assembly Elections and Redistricting Committee. “California, like
the other ‘safe’ states, is ignored during campaigns and that is
abhorrent. As a result, issues that are of concern to our 15
million voters aren’t addressed by presidential candidates.”
Under the plan, states would award their presidential electors based on
the national popular vote winner rather than on the statewide vote
winner. The state laws would not take effect anywhere until identical
laws had been enacted in enough states to assure that the nationwide
popular vote winner will get enough electoral votes to be guaranteed
the Presidency.
Co-authors of the book Every Vote Equal: A State-Based Plan For
Electing The President By National Popular Vote, include Stanford
consulting professor John Koza, FairVote's Rob Richie and National
Popular Vote president Barry Fadem. FairVote also produced the
groundbreaking report Presidential Election Inequality. For more
information, see www.fairvote.org/president and
www.nationalpopularvote.com .
FairVote is a non-profit, non-partisan organization that studies the
impact of electoral rules and systems on turnout, representation and
electoral competition. It can help arrange interviews with National
Popular Vote's Barry Fadem and John Koza, National Popular Vote plan
backers such as FairVote's Rob Richie, former Congressmen John Anderson
and John Buchanan and New Yorker writer Hendrik Hertzberg. For more
information, contact Ryan O'Donnell at (301) 270-4616 or
[email protected].