I disagree with your editorial [May 21] and Gary Gaddy's commentary [May 23] opposing the National Popular Vote plan recently approved by our state Senate.

Both pieces are mistaken that North Carolina's current system is any more constitutional than the state entering in the National Popular Vote agreement. Both pieces also fail to acknowledge serious problems with the "unit rule" method used by North Carolina and most states to allocate electoral votes since the 1830s. For example:

-- Candidate with fewer votes should not defeat a candidate with more votes. Our message to the world about the virtues of democracy is undercut when we fail to honor the principles of majority rule and one-person, one-vote.

-- We now have a two-tier democracy where voters in a few states matter and everyone else does not. In 2004, voter turnout among adults under 30 was fully 36 percent higher in the 10 closest states than in the rest of the nation.

-- Presidential candidates ignore the views of most people. George Bush's campaign never polled a single person in two-thirds of states from August 2002 through the 2004 election. It wasn't worth wasting a dime talking to any North Carolina voter not considering a campaign contribution.

Seven in ten Americans want a national popular vote, and North Carolina has the power to join with other states to make it happen. The Senate should be applauded for accepting its constitutional responsibility to allocate electoral votes to serve the interests of its people.

The writer is director of FairVote North Carolina.

TORREY DIXON

Durham

May 29, 2007