The National Popular Vote (NPV) plan calls for states to pass identical legislation to enter them into an interstate agreement to award their electoral votes to the winner of the popular vote in all 50 states and the District of Columbia once the number of participating states represents a majority of the Electoral College. The NPV plan is founded on two rights given to states under the Constitution: first, to enter into binding interstate compacts, and second, the power over how to allocate Electoral College votes (a power to change existing rules that states regularly exercised in the nation's early years, and that Maine and Nebraska exercise today). As of October 2008, it has been adopted by four states.
National Popular Vote is led by John Koza, Barry Fadem and Chris Pearson. In February 2006, FairVote's chairman John Anderson and executive director Rob Richie joined Sen. Birch Bayh (D-IN), Rep. John Buchanan (R-AL), Common Cause president Chellie Pingree and other supporters of the proposal for its public introduction. Released at the news conference were the book about the proposal, Every Vote Equal (available from nationalpopularvote.com), co-authored by Koza, Richie, Fadem and three others. FairVote also released its report: Presidential Election Inequality (see right).
[The National Popular Vote Plan and Direct Election of the President: FAQ]
[National Popular Vote's website ]
[New Yorker commentary by FairVote board member Hendrik Hertzberg]
[FairVote op-eds from the Sacramento Bee and Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel]
[FairVote information brochure on National Popular Vote]
[FairVote information brochure on NPV in North Carolina]
[FairVote NPV Powerpoint for Speakers and Presentations]