The National Popular Vote compact has passed house and senate committees in Minnesota!
https://www.nationalpopularvote.com/state/mn
If you live in Minnesota, please urge your legislators to pass the bill:
https://www.national-popular-vote.com/Campaign/MN/MN0
If Minnesota joins, we'll have 205/270 = 76% of the electoral votes required for the compact to take effect!
#uspol #minnesota #NationalPopularVote #EveryVoteEqual #democracy
@peterdrake Ooh, this means that gerrymandering wouldn't be possible anymore, right?
@trinsec @peterdrake not quite. It's a legal agreement between states to work together to circumvent the electoral college to essentially implement a popular vote (see this video for more info: https://youtu.be/tUX-frlNBJY)
@sojournTime
Thanks for the video, but it's too fast-paced for me. I'm not too familiar enough with US election style to understand this video. Is there some other source that's got... less moving pictures? ;)
@trinsec @sojournTime Short story (leaving out a few details):
Each state is worth a certain number of "electoral votes". The candidate who wins the most electoral votes becomes President.
Within each state, whoever gets the most votes gets ALL of the electoral votes. So, for example, if 51% of the people in Florida vote for you, you get all of Florida's electoral votes.
One consequence is that all of the political power goes to "swing states" that might go to either party in a given election. Everyone knows that California will go to the Democrats and Texas will go to the Republicans, so they get almost no campaign visits. Ohio, on the other hand, might go either way, so a LOT of campaigning happens there.
(An additional problem is that the number of electoral votes per state is not proportional to the state's population. This is a consequence of consolations made to slavers when the country was founded.)
The National Popular Vote Compact effectively ends this process and gives the Presidency to the candidate who gets the most votes.
According to the US Constitution, states can't enter into a compact without the consent of the US Congress and Congress has not given their consent. So this compact is not legal.
Even if they got enough states, they'd have to go back to Congress to first get permission, then go through the whole process again because Congress can't enact any ex post facto law. It would also require approval by the President (or 2/3 of Congress if vetoed), and also require approval by the Supreme Court.
I don't know why they are bothering with all of this when they know that it is not legal.
Also, any state could back out at any time if they wanted to, which kind of defeats the whole purpose.
@Pat @trinsec @sojournTime I don't claim to be a constitutional expert, but the organizers believe it IS legal: https://www.nationalpopularvote.com/section_9.16
@Pat @peterdrake @trinsec I don't want to get too into this, but the Wikipedia page does mention the legality of the compact referencing the compact clause:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Popular_Vote_Interstate_Compact#Legality
Here's the paragraph I referenced in the US Constitution:
"No State shall, without the Consent of Congress, lay any Duty of Tonnage, keep Troops, or Ships of War in time of Peace, enter into any Agreement or Compact with another State, or with a foreign Power, or engage in War, unless actually invaded, or in such imminent Danger as will not admit of delay."
No ambiguity there. The states can't do that without the Consent of Congress, and Congress can't make a law consenting to that without the signature of the President (or a veto override); and any law is subject to review by the Supreme Court.
I suspect that this movement is actually being orchestrated by those who OPPOSE changing the electoral college just to bleed out the will and resources of those who want change. Make them go through all of this shit and then pull the rug out from under them.
@Pat @sojournTime @trinsec Yes, Congress will have to approve it, just as they have approved many other interstate compacts.
@peterdrake
You don't have to be a Constitutional expert. The founders wrote the Constitution in plane language so everyone could understand it. Just read Section 2, Article 10, last paragraph. It is very clear.
If they really want to do this, they should amend the Constitution or just scrap it all together and start over again since there is a bunch other stuff the needs to change anyway.
@trinsec @sojournTime