The National Popular Vote Plan

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]

 
July 13th 2009
Albatross of U.S. democracy
Indianapolis Star

FairVote research is cited in support of the National Popular Vote plan in Indiana, because "every vote cast for president should be equally important and equally coveted, whether it originates in California, Connecticut or Crawfordsville."

July 9th 2009
Winner-take-all can elect a second-place president
San Diego Union-Tribune

The founder of National Popular Vote lays out the shortcomings and injustices of the Electoral College system, and shows why the National Popular Vote plan is the right solution.

May 17th 2009
Why states should adopt the National Popular Vote plan for president
San Diego Union-Tribune

FairVote's Rob Richie writes that the Electoral College deepens political inequality, and explains why the National Popular Vote plan is our best opportunity to ensure that every vote for president is equally valued.

May 14th 2009
Let's Make Every Vote Count
The Nation

Katrina vanden Heuvel, editor of the Nation magazine, highlights FairVote's research in an important piece on the "broad support" growing in the states for the National Popular Vote plan to elect the president.

May 13th 2009
Representative Democracy: Two Steps Forward
The Daily Herald

The executive director of the Economic Opportunity Institute heralds the passage of the National Popular Vote bill in Washington state.

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