Skip to content

Opinion: Peggy Leech, President LOWVBC--The National Popular Vote

Senate Bill 19-042 would enter Colorado into the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact (NPV) to elect the president by popular vote. States that enact this Compact will award all their electors to the presidential candidate who receives the most popular votes in the fifty states and the District of Columbia.
peggy leech
Photo from LOWVBC Facebook

This content was originally published by the Longmont Observer and is licensed under a Creative Commons license.

Dear Editor,

Senate Bill 19-042 would enter Colorado into the National Popular Vote

Interstate Compact (NPV) to elect the president by popular vote. States

that enact this Compact will award all their electors to the presidential

candidate who receives the most popular votes in the fifty states and the

District of Columbia.

The League of Women Voters supports the NPV Compact as an effective means

of strengthening our democratic election process. NPV enables popular votes to

determine the winner in Presidential elections, without changing the

Constitution. The Compact only takes effect when enacted, in identical

form, by enough states to have a majority (270) of the electoral votes.

The U.S. Constitution gives states exclusive power to allocate their

electoral votes. It says nothing about allocating electoral votes in a

winner-take-all system, which evolved in the 1800s. The winner-take-all

system has resulted in campaigns focused only on the “swing states”, and

the system leaves out the vast majority of voters in so-called “flyover

states”. Also, voters in reliably blue or red states may have less

incentive to vote.

In contrast, the NPV Compact would help ensure that every vote is equally

important. A vote cast in a big city would be no more or less valuable than

in a rural area. Republicans in the most populous states would now have

their votes counted, as would Democrats in less-populous states.

SB 19-042 has passed in the Senate and now moves to the Colorado House for

consideration. NPV truly is a non-partisan issue, and the League encourages

people from all political parties to support Colorado joining the NPV

Interstate Compact.

For more information on NPV and other election issues, visit lwvbc.org.

Sincerely,

Peggy Leech, President

League of Women Voters of Boulder County