What is the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact?
“The National Popular Vote Interstate Compact (NPV) is a multi-state agreement that, when active, would ensure that the presidential candidate who wins the popular vote nationally also wins in the Electoral College.”
What is the League’s position on NPV?
“The League’s Position: Statement of Position on Selection of the President, as Announced by National Board, January 1970, Revised March 1982, Updated June 2004 and Revised by the 2010 Convention:
The League of Women Voters of the United States believes that the direct-popular-vote method for electing the President and Vice-President is essential to representative government. The League of Women Voters believes, therefore, that the Electoral College should be abolished. We support the use of the National Popular Vote Compact as one acceptable way to achieve the goal of the direct popular vote for election of the president until the abolition of the Electoral College is accomplished.”
Background: (from ballotpedia.org)
“The National Popular Vote Interstate Compact (NPVIC) is an interstate compact to award member states’ presidential electors to the candidate that receives the most votes nationwide. The NPVIC would go into effect if states representing at least 270 electoral college votes adopt the legislation.[1][2]
As of December 2022, 16 states and Washington, D.C., had adopted legislation to join the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact. Together, they represent 195 Electoral College votes.[1][2]
Article II, Section 1 of the U.S. Constitution gives states the authority to determine how their electoral votes will be awarded: “Each State shall appoint, in such Manner as the Legislature thereof may direct, a Number of Electors.” This compact does not abolish the electoral college system; rather, the compact awards all of the electoral votes from the member states to the candidate who receives the most votes nationwide.[1]
What is the State of Alaska doing on this issue?
In 2023, Senator Bill Wielechowski (D-Anchorage) introduced SB 61 the US Presidental Election Popular Vote Compact. Please read his sponsor statement.
Sen. Wielechowski believes that Alaskan voters need to be heard. And, in the current election environment, the only voters of interest to the current two party presidential candidates are those in the ‘battleground states’ where the parties are vying for the necessary electoral votes to reach 270. At the end of the first regular legislative session of 2023, the bill passed the Judicial and State Affairs committees and ended up in the Rules committee prior to making it for a final vote in the Senate.
The LWV of Alaska will be monitoring the status of this bill during the next legislative session. We fully support this effort.
To read more about this issue: see the article, ” Local View: Popular vote for president ‘essential to representative government'” published by the LWVUS in April of 2023.
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Since 1920, the League of Women Voters has been an activist, grassroots organization whose leaders believed that people should play a critical role in democracy. The League of Women Voters was founded by Carrie Chapman Catt in 1920, just six months before the 19th Amendment to the US Constitution was ratified, giving women the right to vote.
Throughout the years, the League has continued its dual purposes of education and advocacy, engaging in studies on representative government, international relations, natural resources, and social policy.