What is the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact? (2024)
The National Popular Vote Interstate Compact (NPVIC) is an interstate compact initiative to award member states' Electoral College votes to the presidential ticket that receives the most votes nationwide. Although the U.S. Constitution allows states to determine how to award their electoral votes, most states have awarded the full slate of electors to the winner of the popular vote.[1] The NPVIC would go into effect if states representing at least 270 Electoral College votes adopt legislation committing them to the compact.[2][3]
As of 2024, 17 states and Washington, D.C., had adopted legislation to join the NPVIC. Together, they represent 209 Electoral College votes—77% of the 270 votes needed for the agreement to go into effect.[2][3]
In four elections between 1876 and 2020, a presidential candidate won the Electoral College and lost the popular vote. Proponents of the NPVIC have pointed to these examples as evidence that the current system of awarding electors is flawed.[4] NPVIC opponents have said the Compact would change the way elections are run, encouraging candidates to focus on the most populous regions of the country at the expense of rural states.[5] Click here to read arguments for and against the NPVIC.
As of 2024, including D.C., an average of one state had joined the Compact each year since it was first introduced in 2006. All governors who signed legislation adopting the NPVIC were members of the Democratic Party.
See also
- What is the Electoral College?
- What are faithless electors in the Electoral College?
- What happens if there is a tie in the Electoral College?
- Can members of Congress object to Electoral College results?
- What does the Electoral Count Reform Act mean for the 2024 presidential election?
Footnotes
- ↑ Maine and Nebraska, the two exceptions, split their electoral votes, giving two each to the winner of the popular vote and one to the popular vote winner in each congressional district.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 National Popular Vote.com, Main page, accessed August 9, 2011 Cite error: Invalid
<ref>tag; name "nationalvote" defined multiple times with different content - ↑ 3.0 3.1 National Center for Interstate Compacts, "National Popular Vote Interstate Compact," accessed March 6, 2016 Cite error: Invalid
<ref>tag; name "compact" defined multiple times with different content - ↑ National Popular Vote, "9.3 Myth That “Wrong Winner” Elections Are Rare," accessed July 18, 2024
- ↑ Washington Post, "This blue-state election compact could create a constitutional crisis," June 11, 2023
