There is a troubling campaign increasing in strength and acceptance across America called the National Popular Vote (NPV) movement.  Generally, when people hear what NPV accomplishes, most agree with the idea without giving it much thought.  On the surface, NPV seems benign and simple. That position is disturbing, however, because NPV has the potential to turn our American presidential election process into nothing more than a glamourous popularity contest.  Additionally, it also would destroy American Federalism. 

While reading the U.S. Constitution, one quickly discerns that America is a Constitutional Republic and not a democracy.  Article 4, Sec. 4 affirms that guarantee for all to witness.  Although we have a presidential popular vote every four years in each state (51 total including Washington D.C.), the minority voters and states find protection from being overrun by the majority through a genius process created by the framers called the Electoral College.  When American citizens cast their vote for president, they actually cast their vote for Electoral College electors.  The number of Electoral College electors in each state equals the number of representative plus two senators.  If a candidate wins the individual state popular vote, that state’s Electoral College electors cast their votes for that candidate on the first Monday after the second Wednesday of December.  If a Republican wins the state’s popular vote, the Republican electors for that state cast their vote for the Republican presidential candidate.  It is the same for the Democrat party if the Democrat candidate wins the state’s popular vote.  In this fashion, states with smaller populations can still hold a determining factor in who becomes president.   The candidate who wins 270 electoral votes, whatever summation of state votes makes up the 270, wins the presidency. If neither candidate wins 270 electoral votes, the U.S. Constitution tasks the U.S. House of Representatives with selecting the president by giving each state one vote.  The framers believed that the Electoral College would grant Americans equal representation as the fairest way to select a national leader.

The NPV initiative seeks to invalidate and possibly abolish the Electoral College by moving to a straight popular vote total as in a pure democracy.  In other words, whoever wins the most popular votes wins the Whitehouse.  Any balance created by the Electoral College between small states and large states (in respect to population) disappears.   The votes of citizens in the mid-west rural areas or other sparsely populated parts of the country become irrelevant because the large cities and heavily populated states control the election outcome by sheer numbers of their popular vote totals.  Those supporting the NPV initiative claim that NPV represent true democracy.  I, for one, do not want a pure democracy.  They do not work being controlled by emotion and selfishness rather than by rational thought and law.  Quoting founder Benjamin Rush:

A simple democracy is one of the greatest evils.  A democracy is a mobocracy.¹

Since America’s first presidential election in 1789, when George Washington won the electoral votes of 10 out of 13 states, four presidents gained the office after losing the popular vote but after winning the Electoral College vote.  These four include Donald Trump (2016), George W. Bush (2000), Bill Clinton (1992), and Grover Cleveland (1888).  Ironically, Hillary Clinton became quite vocal in support of the NPV initiative after she lost to Donald Trump; however, her husband won the 1992 presidential election after losing the popular vote.  You can draw your own conclusion about Mrs. Clinton’s motive.

For those who have concerns about the current political and cultural conditions in America, we must recognize that the NPV movement is growing.  As of April 26, 2021, the bill was enacted into law in 16 jurisdictions possessing 195 electoral votes, including 4 small states (Delaware, Hawaii, Rhode Island, Vermont), eight medium-sized states (Colorado, Connecticut, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New Mexico, Oregon, Washington), three big states (California, Illinois, New York), and the District of Columbia.  The bill will take effect when enacted by states possessing an additional 75 electoral votes.  The National Popular Vote bill has now passed 41 state legislative chambers in 24 states. It also passed at least one legislative chamber in nine states possessing 88 electoral votes (Arkansas, Arizona, Maine, Michigan, Minnesota, North Carolina, Nevada, Oklahoma, Virginia). Two states possessing 27 more electoral votes (GA, MO) unanimously approved the initiative at the committee level.  Not surprisingly, over recent years, legislation surfaced in the legislatures of all 50 states introducing the NPV proposal to their respective reprentatives.²

It seems that in latest elections, the question around abandoning the Electoral College became a major controversy.  Is that because those that lose do not like the election outcome?  Is it because citizens living in less populated states do not seem to matter as much as others do?  Is it because one party wants to exercise control over the other?  It is true, as with anything created by man, the Electoral College is not perfect.  Gerrymandering is a legitimate issue on both sides of the congressional aisle and we need some true patriots who are more interested in the next generation than the next election to work together to correct the flaws.  Nevertheless, I was very serious when I wrote earlier in this post that development of the Electoral College was an act of genius or possibly, we should agree that it was Divine intervention.  There are actually other countries in the world experimenting with Proportional Representation systems that replicate the Electoral College.³

I suggest to you, the reader, that America does not need to change to a NPV.  We have the best system of government in the history of mankind and we have it because God gave it to us.  That alone makes America exceptional.  When faced with the possibility of your state, my state, moving to the NPV, we need to stand up and say “No.”  It is not in our best interest or the best interest of our children or grandchildren.      

¹ Benjamin Rush, The Letters of Benjamin Rush, L.H. Butterfield, editor (Princeton: Princeton University Press for the American Philosophical Society, 1951), Vol. 1, p. 523, to John Adams on July 21, 1789.

² Status of National Popular Vote Bill in Each State; https://www.nationalpopularvote.com/state-status

³ Electoral College vs. Popular Vote: What is the Difference?; https://www.reactionarytimes.com/electoral-college-vs-popular-vote-what-is-the-difference, October 31, 2020