U.S. PIRG supports National Popular Vote legislation which uses the existing constitutional authority of the states to select Presidential electors.
Under the National Popular Vote compact, states agree to give all of their electoral votes to the winner of the national popular vote in all 50 states, thereby guaranteeing the popular vote winner a supermajority in the Electoral College. The agreement would take effect only when identical legislation has been enacted by states collectively possessing a majority of the Electoral College -- that is 270 of the 538 electoral votes. So far the 4 states which have opted into the compact, Maryland, New Jersey, Illinois, and Hawaii, represent 50 electoral votes or 19% of the 270 needed.
Lisa Gilbert, U.S.PIRG’s Democracy Advocate states, “Over 70% of Americans support the idea of the National Popular Vote Compact. Americans want their vote to matter, regardless of what state they reside in.”
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U.S. PIRG is the federation of state Public Interest Research Groups. State PIRGs are non-profit, non-partisan public interest advocacy organizations.
