Minnesota Governor Walz Signs National Popular Vote into Law

Minnesota Governor Tim Waltz has now signed the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact into law. As a result, 16 states and the District of Columbia (with a total of 205 electoral votes) have now adopted the Compact.

The Compact will take effect when passed by states with an additional 65 electoral votes.

The Compact is now law in

• 4 small states (Delaware, Hawaii, Rhode Island, Vermont),
• 9 medium-sized states (Colorado, Connecticut, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Jersey, New Mexico, Oregon, Washington),
• 3 big states (California, Illinois, New York), and
• the District of Columbia.

The National Popular Vote Interstate Compact has also passed one legislative chamber in 8 additional states with another 78 electoral votes (Arkansas, Arizona, Maine, Michigan, North Carolina, Nevada, Oklahoma, Virginia).

Both houses of the Nevada legislature passed National Popular Vote as a constitutional amendment in 2023. If passed by the 2025 legislature, the proposition will be decided by the voters in 2026.

Please use our convenient system to send emails asking your state legislators to support the National Popular Vote bill in your state.

WHAT NATIONAL POPULAR VOTE WILL DO

The National Popular Vote bill will guarantee that the candidate who wins the most popular votes in all 50 states and the District of Columbia becomes President.

The National Popular Vote Interstate Compact will

• apply the one-person-one-vote principle to presidential elections,
• guarantee the presidency to the candidate who gets the most votes in all 50 states and DC,
• give candidates a reason to campaign in all 50 states, because every voter, in every state, will be politically relevant in every presidential election,
• increase voter turnout, and
• help ensure the peaceful transfer of power in presidential elections.

SHORTCOMINGS OF THE CURRENT SYSTEM

The shortcomings of the current system of electing the President stem from existing state laws that award all of a state’s electoral votes to the presidential candidate who receives the most popular votes in the state.

• Five of our 46 Presidents came into office without winning the most popular votes nationwide.
• Three-quarters of the states, including Alaska, are ignored in the general-election campaign for President (because the state-level outcome is a foregone conclusion).
• The current state-by-state winner-take-all system regularly enables a few thousand votes in a small number of states to decide the Presidency—thereby fueling post-election controversies and threatening the country’s stability.
• Every vote is not equal throughout the United States under the current system.
• The current system could easily result in the U.S. House of Representatives choosing the President.

Details

HOW NATIONAL POPULAR VOTE WORKS

The winner-take-all method of awarding electoral votes is not in the U.S. Constitution and was never mentioned at the 1787 Constitutional Convention or in the Federalist Papers.

The Constitution gives the states exclusive control over the choice of method of awarding their electoral votes—thereby giving the states a built-in way to reform the system.  Specifically, Article II, section 1 says, “Each State shall appoint, in such Manner as the Legislature thereof may direct, a Number of Electors….”

A state's winner-take-all law may be changed in the same manner as it was originally enacted, namely by passage of a new state law.

The National Popular Vote law will take effect when enacted by states with a majority of the electoral votes (270 of 538). Then, the presidential candidate receiving the most popular votes in all 50 states and DC will get all the electoral votes from all of the enacting states. That is, the candidate receiving the most popular votes nationwide will be guaranteed enough electoral votes to become President.

Under the National Popular Vote law, no voter will have their vote cancelled out at the state-level because their choice differed from majority sentiment in their state. Instead, every voter’s vote will be added directly into the national count for the candidate of their choice. This will ensure that every voter, in every state, will be politically relevant in every presidential election—regardless of where they live.

• Introductory video (8 minutes)