Help Preserve Election Integrity: Oppose National Popular Vote in California
There's a new wrinkle in the old game of manipulating the outcome of
elections: A single organization is behind a massive, well- orchestrated
lobbying effort in virtually every state to restructure presidential
election procedures. The wealthy California-based National Popular Vote
(NPV) group is bent on reforming the way Americans have elected their
president via the requirements contained in the Constitution by hijacking
the Electoral College in a way that perverts its original purpose of
allocating electoral votes to states based on their population rather than
disregarding the states and basing the winner on the purely democratic
national popular vote.
While NPV and its marketing line may sound good, their movement to have
individual states enter into an interstate compact regarding how
presidential elections are decided would make a fundamental change in the
role of the Electoral College without the necessity of a formal amendment to
the Constitution with its requirement of 38 states for ratification. The NPV
plan would allow as few as 18 states entered into the compact to effect the
changeover for the entire nation, because these 18 states currently have the
270 electoral votes which would constitute a majority in presidential
elections. Once this compact has member states with 270 or more electoral
votes, then a majority of electoral votes cast in an election would
automatically go to the winner of the national popular vote, thus
eliminating the role of state vote totals.
For example (assuming your state joins the NPV compact), if Candidate P won
in your home state, but Candidate O won the nation's popular vote, all of
your home state's electoral votes would then be awarded to Candidate O. And,
once enough states to constitute a majority of electoral votes would join
the NPV compact, then even if your state had not joined the compact, your
vote's only impact would be as part of the national popular vote. Your
state's electoral votes could have no impact because those states with a
majority of the electoral votes would have already committed the nation to
awarding the presidency to the winner of the national popular vote. This
would amount to a large step towards a pure democracy, which the Founding
Fathers took great pains to protect us from, and a drastic reduction in the
role of the states and the Electoral College as originally intended by the
Founders.
The NPV system, endorsed by Common Cause (think George Soros), League of
Women Voters, and FairVote, along with several liberal newspapers like the
New York Times, is another nail in the coffin of our Constitutional
Republic, giving the upper hand for deciding elections to large costal
states with big populations, a boon to liberals and tyrants because it makes
electioneering so much easier. This method would silence the voices of the
electorate in many states by transferring, in a very socialistic style,
their presidential votes from one to another not of their choosing.
So far seven states and the District of Columbia, representing 77 electoral
votes (29% of the 270 electoral votes needed for a majority) have joined the
NPV compact of states.
The NPV promoters are so good at what they do that they have managed to have
identically worded bills introduced simultaneously in over 30 state
legislatures. In 2011 two states have already defeated their NPV bills, two
states want to study the matter further, and 28 states have active
legislation.
Currently in California, AB459, the National Popular Vote legislation has
been passed in the Assembly by 51 to 21 on May 19. It was then referred to
the Senate where it is expected to pass. A similar NPV bill passed both
houses in California in 2008, but it was vetoed by then-Gov. Arnold
Schwarzenegger. Contact your California State Senator and insist your voice
and vote be counted; insist they leave the presidential election process
untouched.
There's a new wrinkle in the old game of manipulating the outcome of
elections: A single organization is behind a massive, well- orchestrated
lobbying effort in virtually every state to restructure presidential
election procedures. The wealthy California-based National Popular Vote
(NPV) group is bent on reforming the way Americans have elected their
president via the requirements contained in the Constitution by hijacking
the Electoral College in a way that perverts its original purpose of
allocating electoral votes to states based on their population rather than
disregarding the states and basing the winner on the purely democratic
national popular vote.
While NPV and its marketing line may sound good, their movement to have
individual states enter into an interstate compact regarding how
presidential elections are decided would make a fundamental change in the
role of the Electoral College without the necessity of a formal amendment to
the Constitution with its requirement of 38 states for ratification. The NPV
plan would allow as few as 18 states entered into the compact to effect the
changeover for the entire nation, because these 18 states currently have the
270 electoral votes which would constitute a majority in presidential
elections. Once this compact has member states with 270 or more electoral
votes, then a majority of electoral votes cast in an election would
automatically go to the winner of the national popular vote, thus
eliminating the role of state vote totals.
For example (assuming your state joins the NPV compact), if Candidate P won
in your home state, but Candidate O won the nation's popular vote, all of
your home state's electoral votes would then be awarded to Candidate O. And,
once enough states to constitute a majority of electoral votes would join
the NPV compact, then even if your state had not joined the compact, your
vote's only impact would be as part of the national popular vote. Your
state's electoral votes could have no impact because those states with a
majority of the electoral votes would have already committed the nation to
awarding the presidency to the winner of the national popular vote. This
would amount to a large step towards a pure democracy, which the Founding
Fathers took great pains to protect us from, and a drastic reduction in the
role of the states and the Electoral College as originally intended by the
Founders.
The NPV system, endorsed by Common Cause (think George Soros), League of
Women Voters, and FairVote, along with several liberal newspapers like the
New York Times, is another nail in the coffin of our Constitutional
Republic, giving the upper hand for deciding elections to large costal
states with big populations, a boon to liberals and tyrants because it makes
electioneering so much easier. This method would silence the voices of the
electorate in many states by transferring, in a very socialistic style,
their presidential votes from one to another not of their choosing.
So far seven states and the District of Columbia, representing 77 electoral
votes (29% of the 270 electoral votes needed for a majority) have joined the
NPV compact of states.
The NPV promoters are so good at what they do that they have managed to have
identically worded bills introduced simultaneously in over 30 state
legislatures. In 2011 two states have already defeated their NPV bills, two
states want to study the matter further, and 28 states have active
legislation.
Currently in California, AB459, the National Popular Vote legislation has
been passed in the Assembly by 51 to 21 on May 19. It was then referred to
the Senate where it is expected to pass. A similar NPV bill passed both
houses in California in 2008, but it was vetoed by then-Gov. Arnold
Schwarzenegger. Contact your California State Senator and insist your voice
and vote be counted; insist they leave the presidential election process
untouched.
