On February 20, the New Mexico Senate became the 35th state legislative chamber to approve the National Popular Vote bill.  The vote was 26-16. The bill now goes to the New Mexico House of Representatives.  

Here are some things you can do to help pass the National Popular Vote bill in your state, and thereby guarantee the Presidency to the candidate receiving the most popular votes in all 50 states and DC.  
  • Please send an email to your state legislators using our convenient email system asking them to support the National Popular Vote bill. 
  • Please share this email with your friends by clicking on the small Facebook or Twitter logo at the top of this email. 
  • Please share the National Popular Vote home page (www.NationalPopularVote.com) with your friends on Facebook or other social networks.  Please ask your friends to tell their state legislators to support the National Popular Vote bill in their state.  Your friends can do this conveniently using our email system.
  • Contribute to National Popular Vote. 
  • Visit your state legislators at their local office or state capitol offices to emphasize your support. Or, phone them. You can find their office address, phone, and web page by entering your zip code and address at www.NationalPopularVote.com/write and then clicking on "contact info for my legislators and officials." 
  • Like us on Facebook
  • Follow us on Twitter
  • Write a letter-to-the-editor to newspapers.
  • Show your friends the videos  about National Popular Vote found on  YouTube . 
  • Get a local group to host a guest speaker, panel discussion, or debate on the topic of  the method of electing the President.
  • Add your "two cents" to published items on the web by agreeing with favorable articles, or correcting the errors in opposing articles. You can follow the ongoing debate on the web by signing up for free Google alerts  for "electoral college" or "national popular vote" 
  • Learn more about National Popular Vote from Chapter 9 of our book Every Vote Equal: A State-Based Plan for Electing the President by National Popular Vote.  The entire book is free to read or download. You can purchase the book for $4.95 on Amazon. 
The  National Popular Vote  bill would guarantee the Presidency to the candidate who receives the most popular votes in all 50 states and the District of Columbia. 

The shortcomings of the current method of electing the President stem from state winner-take-all laws. Under these state laws, all of a state's electoral votes are awarded to the candidate receiving the most popular votes in each separate state. 

Because of these state winner-take-all laws, five out of our 45 Presidents have come into office without winning the most popular votes nationwide.  In this current era of close presidential elections,  undemocratic outcomes will happen again if these state laws are not changed.  The average margin in the national popular vote has been only 5% since 1988.

Current state winner-take-all laws create another problem in  every presidential election. The vast majority of Americans get ignored because candidates only campaign in a handful of closely divided "battleground" states.  Candidates write off states where they are hopelessly behind.  They take for granted states where they are safely ahead.  There were 399 campaign events in the 2016 general-election campaign, but
  • Over half (57%) of the events were held in just 4 states (Florida, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, and Ohio).
  • Virtually all (94%) of the events were in just 12 states (containing only 30% of the country's population).  Details.  
As presidential candidate Scott Walker (R) bluntly said in 2015:
"The nation as a whole is not going to elect the next president. Twelve states are."   Video

Fortunately, the U.S. Constitution contains a built-in method by which the states can remedy this situation.  Article II says:
"Each State shall appoint, in such Manner as the Legislature thereof may direct, a Number of Electors...."

Thus, it does not take an amendment to the U.S. Constitution to change state winner-take-all laws.  These laws may be changed in the same way that they were originally passed -- namely by action of your state legislature. 

The winner-take-all method of awarding electoral votes was used by only three states in the nation's first presidential election in 1789 (and repealed by all three by 1800). It was never debated at the Constitutional Convention, and never mentioned in the  Federalist Papers. It did not become predominant until 1880 -- almost a century after the U.S. Constitution was written.

Under the National Popular Vote bill, the national popular vote winner will receive all of the electoral votes of the enacting states. The bill will take effect when enacted by states possessing a majority of the electoral votes -- enough to elect a President (270 of 538).  Then, when the Electoral College meets in mid-December, the national popular vote winner will become President because the enacting states will represent at least 270 electoral votes. Thus, the Electoral College will represent the will of the voters in all 50 states (and DC). 

A national popular vote for President is an achievable political goal that can be in place in time for the 2020 election. The bill has already been enacted into law in 11 states possessing 165 electoral votes.  It will take effect when enacted by additional states having 105 electoral votes.  The bill has previously passed one chamber in 12 additional states with 96 electoral votes.  In 2016, the bill was approved by unanimous bipartisan committee votes in two states with an additional 26 electoral votes. A total of 2,955 state legislators have endorsed it.   In New Mexico, the bill previously passed the House of Representatives in 2009.  See status in states. 

Recently, the National Popular Vote bill received bipartisan support in 
  • 40-16 vote in the Republican-controlled Arizona House
  • 28-18 vote in the Republican-controlled Oklahoma Senate
  • 57-4 vote in the Republican-controlled New York Senate
  • 37-21 vote in the Democratic-controlled Oregon House
The National Popular Vote bill will make every voter in every state politically relevant in every presidential election.

Thank you. 

National Popular Vote