The National Popular Vote, a movement to circumvent the electoral college with a process in which the United States President is elected by popular vote of all United States citizens is an effort currently being pursued in the United States.  States amounting to 19% of the electoral votes needed to enact the law have already approved the National Popular Vote and California could be next.

From the National Popular Vote Website:

“Under the U.S. Constitution, the states have exclusive and plenary (complete) power to allocate their electoral votes, and may change their state laws concerning the awarding of their electoral votes at any time. Under the National Popular Vote bill, all of the state’s electoral votes would be awarded to the presidential candidate who receives the most popular votes in all 50 states and the District of Columbia. The bill would take effect only when enacted, in identical form, by states possessing a majority of the electoral votes—that is, enough electoral votes to elect a President (270 of 538).”

Currently Hawaii, Illinois, Maryland and New Jersey are the states that have enacted the National Popular Vote Act, amounting to 50 of the 270 votes needed.  California’s 55 votes would more than double that.

The National Popular Vote released a 8-page memo about the issue, including the specific language of the National Popular Vote Act.  Read the memo here.

Carole Migden, the former California State Senator from San Francisco proposed SB 37 – The National Popular Vote Act in California during the 2007-2008 Legislative Session.  It passed both houses and was vetoed by Arnold Schwarzenegger on September 30, 2008.

This legislation will be beneficial for California.  Currently, there is no need for Presidential candidates to campaign in California because it is a winner-take-all democratic state.  Democrats, who saw their candidate win their election by a 23 point margin should like the idea of giving that vote advantage to their candidate.  Republicans, on the other hand, would have the ability to swing a national popular vote election by millions of votes in our state.  In some cases, the margin on victory in California is more than the total vote of other states.  Candidates would campaign heavily in California to ensure they get a substantial portion of the votes.

SB 37 passed both houses during the last legislative session.  Hopefully one of former Senator Migden’s colleagues will propose the bill in January and get the ball rolling again.  Passing the bill in California wont make it law, it requires 270 electoral votes worth of states to pass the bill to take effect, but at least we can do our part.

Governor Schwarzenegger has made government reform his priority and has succeeded with Proposition 11.  Why not make the National Popular Vote Act a priority as well?

For more information about the National Popular Vote Act, visit www.nationalpopularvote.com or read the NPV’s Memo from August 13, 2008.