Do you feel you need "Election Recovery Classes" following the recent election?
Do you feel your vote for the President and Vice-President did not really count for anything?
Are you frustrated with the Electoral College Process?
The Founding Fathers established the Electoral College process as the preferred method to elect the President and Vice President. Read about it in Article II Section 1 of the Constitution.
THE PROBLEM: There is a movement under way to effectively change the Electoral process through an interstate compact that throws all the Electoral votes from the states who sign the compact to the President who receives a majority vote throughout the entire country. This movement is called the NATIONAL POPULAR VOTE (NPV). or the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact.
You can read all about what the proponents have to say about it at this site:
I personally feel NPV is a bad idea. The following provides the main talking points from the above web site of the proponents and my counter to those arguments:
1. NPV Proponents Argument #1: NPV is a Constitutionally Conservative Approach; State winner-take-all laws are State laws, not part of the constitution and were never debated by Constitutional Convention or mentioned in the Federalist Papers.
My Counter #1: I really hate it when people don't tell the truth. NPV was in fact debated during the Constitutional Convention and rejected. During the CC, the Founding Fathers discussed 3 ideas for selecting the president: 1. Congress select President 2. State Legislatures select president 3. Direct popular vote 4. Finally, the Committee of Eleven came up with the idea of the Electoral College : Art II Section I and empowered the States not the popular vote to guarantee a Republican form of government: Art IV Section 4 The United States of America is a Republic (review your Pledge of Allegiance!). A Democracy always implodes on itself eventually.
My Counter #2: Alexander Hamilton explained the reasons to prefer the Electoral College over a NPV in Federalist Paper #68 Federalist Paper #68--
My Counter #3: We have used the Electoral College process for over 200 years. To change it now is neither conservative nor is it in principal-- Constitutional. Two Centuries have encouraged coalition building, given a voice to big and small states alike, and discouraged voter fraud. NPV proponents think they are smarter than 200 years of a successful system!
My Counter #4: A NPV will open the door for much greater possibilities for voter fraud with its resultant law suits, protests and riots. That is far from a 'conservative' approach!
2. NPV Proponent Argument #2: NPV is a State Based system; States remain in control.
My Counter #1: NPV is not State Based by the very definition of NPV. The States give up their Sovereignty when they sign this agreement. They no longer can decide how their Electors vote since the Electors are bound by the Compact with other States to cast their votes according to the NPV regardless of how their State popular vote decided. What happens in another State can totally reverse the will of the people in the State. I believe there will be riots in that State whose Electoral votes are cast different than their popular vote. Why stir up contention if the current system is working fine?
My Counter #2: Individual states set their own rules as to who can vote, such as early elections, etc, but the State no longer controls how their State Electoral votes are cast.
My Counter #3: Under NPV, the election code in any given state will always effect the election results in another State because codes are very different from one State to another (early voting, registering to vote, qualifying to register, felon voting, recounts). Each of these differences is an opportunity for lawsuits claiming unfair treatment. The list of possible complaints is endless.
My Counter #4: The small less populated States will never have much influence against a blockade of populous States who have signed the NPV agreement. Therefore, small States will end up with absolutely no control.
3. NPV Proponent Argument #3: NPV is not changing the Constitution
My Counter #1: Technically none of the 'words' of the Constitution are being changed, but in reality, NPV is an 'end-run' around the Constitution to effectively put in place something even worse then the National Popular Vote considered by the Founding Fathers. If enough States sign the NPV agreement to total 270 Electoral Votes, then it doesn't matter what the rest of the States think. They will have no say on whether such a process is put into place or not. The reality is that if a NPV were made a matter of a Constitutional Amendment, it is highly unlikely that it would pass by the required 3/4's of the States and the Proponents of NPV know it. What they are doing is sneaky underhanded politics.
My Counter #2: The National Popular Vote Interstate Compact (NPVIC) has been signed by 11 States all of which are "blue states" for a total of 165 Electoral Votes. There are plenty of legal opinions stating that "Congress would have to approve the NPVIC before it could go into effect. Article I, Section 10 of the US Constitution states that: "No State shall, without the Consent of Congress . . . enter into any Agreement or Compact with another State, or with a foreign Power." See wikipedia: NPVIC--
NPV is a liberal approach which guarantees the President will always be elected by densely populated Cities and States. If NPV had been in place, Al Gore would have been president instead of Bush and Hillary Clinton would have been president instead of Trump. NPV is neither Constitutional nor Conservative.
NPV would stir up mountains of contention which we do not need right now. There is no compelling reason to change how we have been doing things successfully for over 200 years, so why take a chance on this liberal idea? If it ain't broke, don't fix it! A NPV, would theoretically require recounts in EVERY PRECINCT IN EVERY STATE, not just selected precincts in selected states. So principles and Constitution aside, from a pragmatic level, this would be chaos well beyond what we are seeing this year.
WHY A POPULAR VOTE FOR PRESIDENT IS A BAD THING
This is an interesting News Report: FOX NEWS ON NPV
What can you do to stop NPV? By convincing your representatives at the State level to reject it!
1. Find out who your State Senate and House Representatives are. In Arizona, follow this link:
2. Email them a simple message: Click on this link to get a downloadable word document you can customize: Letter to your Legislator
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Did you send a letter or email to your representative? Please make a comment on this post if I have moved you to action._______________________________________________________________
I invite you to learn more about the Center for Self-Governance at this link. Sign up for their Level 1 class or ask me where the next class is.
