Maine became the fourteenth state to join the National Popular Vote bill – an agreement to give Electoral College votes to the presidential candidate who wins the popular vote. The Maine Senate approved the bill 19-16 and now it will need to pass the state House and then be signed into law by Maine Gov. Janet Mills for it to be enacted to law.
Maine is just one state that is trying to become part of an interstate compact pushing to enact into law the National Popular Vote bill, which “would guarantee the presidency to the candidate who receives the most popular votes across all 50 states and the District of Columbia.”
The bill is a constitutionally conservative, state-based approach that preserves the Electoral College, state control of elections, and the power of the states to control how the President is elected.
The National Popular Vote bill will take effect if states that hold the majority of the Electoral College’s 538 electoral votes join the pact, The Hill reported. The bill, which currently has been enacted into law in 15 jurisdictions totaling 189 electoral votes, needs a total of 270 electoral votes, according to the National Popular Vote website.
The bill ensures that every vote, in every state, will matter in every presidential election.
Currently California, Colorado, Connecticut, the District of Columbia, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Massachusetts, Maryland, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Rhode Island, Vermont and Washington have enacted the bill into law.
The Electoral College was created in 1787. There have been only five instances when presidential candidates were elected after winning the electoral vote, but not the popular vote. Donald Trump was the most recent after losing the popular vote in 2016.
The National Popular Vote’s Advisory Board is made up of former Senators Jake Garn (R–UT), Birch Bayh (D–IN), and David Durenberger (R–MN); former Congressmen John Anderson (R–IL, I), John Buchanan (R–AL), Tom Campbell (R–CA), and Tom Downey (D–NY). Other supporters include former Governor Howard Dean (D–VT), House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R–GA), and Governor Jim Edgar (R–IL), according to the bill’s website.
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