U.S. POPULAR VOTE ACT
I propose that all elections in America not be decided by the present ELECTORAL COLLEGE
voting system but instead by which ever candidate gets the most popular votes!
Four times in our history the Presidential Candidate with the MOST popular votes, LOST the
election because of the inequitable Electoral College voting system.
As recently as the Presidential Elections of 2000, Candidate Al Gore lost the election to George W. Bush
even though Gore had about 540,000 MORE popular votes than Bush!
THE PRESENT ELECTORAL COLLEGE VOTING SYSTEM IS GROSSLY UNFAIR!
Many citizens already agree that the Electoral College System, used to elect our president, is
wrong and every election creates more and more resentment. This ground swell of descent grew even
greater after the 2000 election, when George W. Bush lost the nationwide popular vote to Al Gore, but
won the electoral vote to become the 43rd President of the United States. Now, the ground swell of
opinion is forcing disenfranchised voters to consider a Popular Vote Act, a system that, while not doing
away with the Electoral College system, would modify it to ensure that the presidential candidate who
receives the most national votes will become the President.
To take effect, the Popular Vote Act can be enacted in any state. It does NOT require a
Constitutional Amendment! Once enacted, the participating states would cast all their electoral votes
1
based on the popular vote in that state, (ensuring a candidate the required 270 electoral votes. See:
Electoral Votes by State below.)
The Popular Vote Act would eliminate what critics of the Electoral College system point to as the
"winner-take-all" rule - the awarding all of that State’s Electoral votes to the candidate who receives
the most Electoral College votes in that state.
Currently, 48 of the 50 states follow some form of the winner-take-all rule. Only Nebraska and
Maine do not. Because of the winner-take-all rule, a candidate can be elected president without
winning the most popular votes nationwide. This has occurred in 4 of the nation's presidential
elections, most recently in 2000.
This Popular Vote Act does not do away with the Electoral College system, an action that
would require a constitutional amendment, it modifies the winner-take-all-rule in a way that would
assure that every vote will matter in every state in every presidential election.
Is the Popular Vote Act Constitutional?
Like most issues involving politics, the U.S.
Constitution is largely silent on the political issues of presidential elections. This was the Intent of
the Founding Fathers. The Constitution specifically leaves details of how the Electoral votes are
cast up to each individual state. According to ARTICLE II, SECTION 1, "Each State shall appoint, in
such manner as the Legislature thereof may direct, a Number of Electors, equal to the whole
Number of Senators and Representatives to which the State may be entitled in the Congress." As a
result, an agreement between groups of states to cast all of their electoral votes in a similar
manner, as proposed by the Popular Vote Act, passes constitutional muster.
The winner-take-all rule is not required by the Constitution and was actually used by only
three states in the nation's first presidential election in 1789. Today, the fact that Nebraska and
Maine do not use the winner-take-all system serves as proof that modifying the Electoral College
system, as proposed by my Popular Vote Act, is constitutional and does not require a
Constitutional Amendment.
As of this date, the Popular Vote Act has already been passed by the legislatures of six states:
Massachusetts, Hawaii, Illinois, Maryland, New Jersey and Washington. Combined, these six states
control 73 electoral votes or 27 percent of the 270 electoral votes needed to activate the plan. The
Popular Vote Act has also been passed by at least one chamber of the legislatures of 14 other
states.
It is time that office seekers should be elected by receiving the most votes.
WAKE UP!
California alone has enough s ELECTORAL DELEGATES to out vote the combined citizens
of Alaska (3), Delaware (3), Hawaii (4), Idaho (4), Maine (4), Montana (3), Nebraska (5),
New Hampshire (4), New Mexico (5), North Dakota (3), Rhode Island (4), South Dakota
2
(3), Vermont (3), and West Virginia (5), TOTAL; California (55) to (53) aforementioned
states. (Those 14 other States comprise almost 1/3rd of America).
If you add Texas’ (38) Electoral Votes to New York, it means these two states could
cancel the citizens’ votes in Arkansas (6), Iowa (6), Kansas (6), Mississippi (6), Nevada
(6), and Utah (6). TOTAL: California & Texas (93) Electoral Votes to the aforementioned
20 States (89) Electoral Votes.
The CURRENT ELECTORAL VOTING SYSTEM is wrong. These states might just as well
NOT vote because one state, NEW YORK, can out vote all of them. To make matters
worse, most states give now give all their Electoral Votes to the Candidate who wins the
most Electoral Votes in their State. This means that if YOU voted for the Candidate with
the lesser Electoral Votes, your vote didn’t really get counted.
NOW YOU CAN CORRECT THE DYSFUNTIONAL ELECTION PROCESS!
PRESENT MAJOR ELECTORAL VOTE STATES
ELECTORAL
STATE
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
VOTES
TOTAL
STATE
CA
CALIFORNIA
55
55
7. OH
OHIO
TX
TEXAS
38
93
8. GA
GEORGIA
FL
FLORIDA
29
122
9. MI
MICHIGAN
NY
NEW YORK
29
151
10. NC
NO. CAROLINA
IL
ILLINOIS
20
171
11. NJ
NEW JERSEY
PA
PENNSYLVANIA
20
191
12 VA
VIRGINIA
TOTAL ELECTORAL VOTES BY 13 STATES WITH MOST ELECTORAL VOTES:
(OVER 50% OF THE TOTAL ELECTORAL VOTING POWER)
BALANCE OF ALL OHER STATES’ ELECTORAL VOTES (Includes Washington DC)
AL
Alabama
9
9
20. MS
Mississippi
AK
Alaska
3
12
21. MT
Montana
AZ
Arizona
11
23
22. ND
North Dakota
AR
Arkansas
6
29
23. NE
Nebraska
CO
Colorado
9
38
24. NH
New Hampshire
CT
Connecticut
7
45
25. NM
New Mexico
DC
Dist of Columbia
3
48
26. NV
Nevada
DE
Delaware
3
51
27. OK
Oklahoma
HI
Hawaii
4
55
28. OR
Oregon
VOTES
18
16
16
15
14
13
TOTAL
209
225
241
256
270
283
283
6
3
3
5
4
5
6
7
7
149
152
155
160
164
169
175
182
189
3
10. IA
11. ID
12. IN
13. KS
14. KY
15. LA
16. MD
17. MA
18. MN
19. MO
Iowa
Idaho
Indiana
Kansas
Kentucky
Louisiana
Maryland
Massachusetts
Minnesota
Missouri
6
4
11
6
8
8
10
11
10
10
61
65
76
82
90
98
112
123
133
143
29.
30.
31.
32.
33.
34.
35.
36.
37.
38.
RI
SC
SC
TN
UT
VT
WA
WI
WV
WY
Rhode Island
South Carolina
South Dakota
Tennessee
Utah
Vermont
Washington
Wisconsin
West Virginia
Wyoming
BALANCE OF STATES’ ELECTORAL VOTES:
4
9
3
11
8
3
12
10
5
3
193
202
205
216
222
225
237
247
252
255
255
PLUS MAJOR STATES ELECTORAL VOTES:
283
GRAND TOTAL OF ALL ELECTORAL VOTES:
538
Based on the present system, it is possible for a candidate to win the ELECTORAL VOTES in only
THIRTEEN States and become our next President! (This has happened in four presidential elections so
far.)With our present Delegate voting system, Forty Seven States, giving ALL the states citizens’ votes to
the Candidate whose party got the most ELECTORAL VOTES, could possibly mean that 49% of their
citizen’s votes were given to the Candidate they actually voted against!
The current system of ELECTORAL DELEGATE voting needs to be changed. There is a big
difference between DELEGATE VOTES and POPULAR VOTES. The system whereby a State gives every
Citizen’s vote to the party with the most ELECTORAL VOTES is undemocratic.
ONE CITIZEN - ONE VOTE THAT COUNTS!
Demand POPULAR VOTE ELECTIONS in OUR state, whereby a person’s vote goes
into the column of the Candidate of their choice, MAKE YOUR VOTE COUNT!
4