A commemorative brick in the sidewalk on the east side of the Johnson County, Missouri Justice Center.
A bill, pre-filed today by Representative Tony Dugger (r):
HB 1959
Adopts an agreement to elect the president by national popular voteSponsor: Dugger, Tony (141)
Proposed Effective Date: 8/28/2016
LR Number: 4314H.01I
Last Action: 01/04/2016 – Prefiled (H)
Bill String: HB 1959
[….]
This wouldn’t be about dubya in 2000, would it? We can’t wait to check out the full bill text when it becomes available. The devil is in the details.
A 2015 survey of Missouri voters showed 75% overall support for the idea that the President should be the candidate who receives the most popular votes in all 50 states.
By political affiliation, support for a national popular vote for President was 78% among Republicans, 73% among Democrats, and 73% among independents/others. By gender, support was 79% among women and 70% among men.
By age, support was 82% among 18-29 year olds, 66% among 30-45 year olds, 76% among 46-65 year olds, and 73% for those older than 65.
In 1824, Missouri Senator Thomas Hart Benton told the Senate:
“The general ticket system [winner-take-all], now existing in 10 States was … not [the offspring] of any disposition to give fair play to the will of the people. It was adopted by the leading men of those states, to enable them to consolidate the vote of the State.”
In Gallup polls since 1944, only about 20% of the public has supported the current system of awarding all of a state’s electoral votes to the presidential candidate who receives the most votes in each separate state (with about 70% opposed and about 10% undecided).
Support for a national popular vote is strong among Republicans, Democrats, and Independent voters, as well as every demographic group in every state surveyed recently. In the 41 red, blue, and purple states surveyed, overall support has been in the 67-81% range – in rural states, in small states, in Southern and border states, in big states, and in other states polled.
Most Americans believe that the candidate who receives the most votes should win.
NationalPopularVote
That’s all well and good. So maybe Congress could amend the U.S. Constitution and the state legislatures could maybe ratify that change? It’d probably save quite a few steps in the process don’t you think?
There are less steps with the National Popular Vote bill.
There have been hundreds of unsuccessful proposed amendments to modify or abolish the Electoral College – more than any other subject of Constitutional reform.
To abolish the Electoral College would need a constitutional amendment, and could be stopped by states with as little as 3% of the U.S. population.
Instead, by state laws, without changing anything in the Constitution, using the built-in method that the Constitution provides for states to make changes.
The U.S. Constitution says “Each State shall appoint, in such Manner as the Legislature thereof may direct, a Number of Electors . . .” The U.S. Supreme Court has repeatedly characterized the authority of the state legislatures over the manner of awarding their electoral votes as “plenary” and “exclusive.”
The normal way of changing the method of electing the President is not a federal constitutional amendment, but changes in state law.
Historically, major changes in the method of electing the President have come about by state legislative action. For example, the people had no vote for President in most states in the nation’s first election in 1789. However, now, as a result of changes in the state laws governing the appointment of presidential electors, the people have the right to vote for presidential electors in 100% of the states.
In 1789, only 3 states used the winner-take-all method (awarding all of a state’s electoral vote to the candidate who gets the most votes in the state). However, as a result of changes in state laws, the winner-take-all method is now currently used by 48 of the 50 states.
In 1789, it was necessary to own a substantial amount of property in order to vote; however, as a result of changes in state laws, there are now no property requirements for voting in any state.
In other words, neither of the two most important features of the current system of electing the President (namely, that the voters may vote and the winner-take-all method) are in the U.S. Constitution. Neither was the choice of the Founders when they went back to their states to organize the nation’s first presidential election.
The normal process of effecting change in the method of electing the President is specified in the U.S. Constitution, namely action by the state legislatures. This is how the current system was created, and this is the built-in method that the Constitution provides for making changes. The abnormal process is to go outside the Constitution, and amend it.
The National Popular Vote bill would guarantee the presidency to the candidate who receives the most popular votes in the country.
The National Popular Vote bill would take effect when enacted by states with a majority of the electoral votes—270 of 538.
All of the presidential electors from the enacting states will be supporters of the presidential candidate receiving the most popular votes in all 50 states (and DC)—thereby guaranteeing that candidate with an Electoral College majority.
The bill has passed 33 state legislative chambers in 22 rural, small, medium, large, red, blue, and purple states with 250 electoral votes. The bill has been enacted by 11 jurisdictions with 165 electoral votes – 61% of the 270 necessary to go into effect.