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Thursday, April 03, 2008

We're Another Step Closer to a National Popular Vote for the Presidency

[via Progressive States Network]

I have long thought that the National Popular Vote movement was the most realistic avenue for a democratizing reform of the Electoral College in the United States, and quite quietly, slowly, surely, step by step, the movement has been inching its way toward a realization of that goal.
On April 2nd, the Maine Senate passed a National Popular Vote bill, LD 1744, that would guarantee that the Presidential candidate who receives the most votes in all 50 states wins the Presidency. The bill is an interstate compact, which would take effect only when states possessing a majority of the membership of the Electoral College (that is 270 of 538 electoral votes) enact similar statutes…

The Maine Senate vote follows a vote by the Vermont Senate on March 19th to approve its own NPV bill, S 270. Both Maryland and New Jersey have enacted the NPV compact and a total of sixteen legislative chambers have now approved it as well. The compact is awaiting the governor's signature in Illinois.

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