North Carolina has stepped to the forefront of a national effort to rationalize and modernize presidential elections. The state Senate recently passed the National Popular Vote plan, a proposal that would guarantee that the presidential candidate receiving the most popular votes across the country would be elected.

The measure now awaits consideration in the state House of Representatives. If it passes there and is signed by the governor, North Carolina would become the second state after Maryland to adopt an historic and long-overdue change in how we elect the nation's chief executive.

The proposal creates an interstate compact in which participating states would agree to cast all their electoral votes for the winner of the national popular vote. Proponents are busy working state legislatures to pass the measure. The plan would take effect when, and if, enough states have signed on to equal the 270 electoral votes required for victory in the Electoral College.

Much of the impetus for the National Popular Vote plan came from the 2000 election debacle when 537 disputed votes in Florida caused Al Gore to lose the electoral vote, despite carrying the country by 540,000 popular votes. Three previous times in our history -- 1824, 1876 and 1888 -- the popular vote winner lost in the Electoral College.

While assuring that the president has a popular mandate to govern, the National Popular Vote plan would strengthen our democracy in an even more important way. It would give every vote in every state equal value for the candidates, and give every voter in the country an equal motivation to participate in electing the president.

The role of the Electoral College has evolved since the first presidential election in 1789. For several decades, some state legislatures appointed the electors who cast their state's votes for president.

For many years, the winner-take-all rule has prevailed: the candidate receiving the most votes in each state is awarded all of that state's electoral votes.

This has led to an ever-decreasing number of states deciding the presidency. In the last two elections, no more than 12 to 15 "battleground states" were competitive enough between Republicans and Democrats to command interest from the presidential candidates.

The remaining 35 to 38 states have been relegated to "spectator" status, with their voters effectively disfranchised from a meaningful role in choosing the president.

North Carolina is firmly in the camp of the spectator states. In nearly every election since 1968, the Republican presidential candidate has carried the state by a lopsided margin. This leaves no incentive for either candidate to care about North Carolina's 15 electoral votes. For the Democrat, it's a lost cause; for the Republican, it's in the bag.

The big losers are the voters -- Republicans and Democrats -- because for them, there is no incentive to go to the polls or even to follow the issues of the presidential campaign. Casting a vote for president in North Carolina is meaningless and futile. In California, New York and Illinois -- where Democrats have the electoral votes locked up -- voting in the presidential election is equally irrelevant.

Defenders often claim the framers designed the Electoral College to benefit smaller states. If that ever was true, it has long since ceased to be true. More than anything, transportation and communication realities made an Electoral College practical in the 18th century.

Despite strong public sentiment for a direct popular election, abolishing the Electoral College through federal constitutional amendment is not politically feasible. While the National Popular Vote plan can only circumvent the Electoral College, the experience of every state and every voter enjoying equal participation in presidential elections would likely accelerate political momentum to eventually amend the Constitution.

For a country that considers itself the world's pre-eminent democracy, isn't it time we discarded an 18th century anachronism and brought our presidential elections into the 21st century?

Durham resident Lee Mortimer is a member of FairVote.org, a national election reform organization supporting the National Popular Vote plan.