National Popular Vote Compact Makes Huge Inroads in Another State

Author: Thomas A Hawk
Published: 25 May, 2017
●
Updated: 17 Oct, 2022●
1 min read
Ballot Access News reported Wednesday that the Oregon State House passed a bill that would add Oregon to the National Popular Vote Compact (NPVC). The plan is simple: Each state that joins the NPVC commits to giving all of their Electoral College votes to the winner of the national popular vote.
Here are some facts you need to know:
- The NPVC is law in 10 states, plus the District of Columbia: California, Hawaii, Illinois, Massachusetts, Maryland, New Jersey, New York, Rhode Island, Vermont, and Washington. Total electoral votes: 165 (See each state's status here.)
- The plan needs enough states to equal 270 electoral votes (a majority) to be enacted. That would ensure a national popular vote victory without abolishing the Electoral College.
- 90.9 percent of Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump's campaign stops in 2016 were in 11 states. Two-thirds of those stops were in 4 battleground states with the most electoral votes: Florida, North Carolina, Ohio, and Pennsylvania.
- The winner of the Electoral College has lost the popular vote 5 times in US presidential history: 1824, 1876, 1888, 2000, and 2016.
- Advocates of any NPV reform say the winner of a presidential election should never lose the popular vote.
- Advocates of keeping the Electoral College say it is crucial to give smaller states and their constituents a stronger voice in presidential elections.
The Oregon bill, HB2927, now goes to the State Senate. Ballot Access News reports that the Senate president will not block it, which he reportedly has done in previous legislative sessions.
Latest articles
Why the War on Cannabis Refuses to Die: How Boomers and the Yippies Made Weed Political
For much of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, American physicians freely prescribed cannabis to treat a wide range of ailments. But by the mid-twentieth century, federal officials were laying the groundwork for a sweeping criminal crackdown. Cannabis would ultimately be classified as a Schedule I substance, placed alongside heroin and LSD, and transformed into a political weapon that shaped American policy for the next six decades....
30 Jun, 2025
-
2 min read
Has Trump Made His Case for the Nobel Peace Prize?
A news item in recent days that was overshadowed in the media by SCOTUS and the One Big Beautiful Budget Bill was a US-brokered peace agreement that was signed between Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) – which if it holds will end a conflict between the two countries that has killed thousands and displaced hundreds of thousands of people....
30 Jun, 2025
-
7 min read
Knives Come Out Against Reform at NYC CRC Hearing as Independents Rise
Last week in Staten Island, the NYC Charter Revision Commission held its next-to-last public hearing. As Commissioner Diane Savino commented, addressing NYC's closed primary system “is the single biggest issue we’ve heard this year.”...
30 Jun, 2025
-
3 min read