In order for elections to truly be free and fair, every eligible citizen must have the ability to cast a vote, and every one of those votes must be accurately counted and weighted equally.
However, under our current system, this is not the case in presidential elections. Because of the Electoral College, the presidential candidate who wins the popular vote does not necessarily win the White House, as we saw in both 2000 and 2016. And in each presidential election, candidates are pressured to only compete in a handful of swing states, effectively ignoring voters in every other region of the country. States like Massachusetts with a reliable Democratic majority are completely tossed aside. It’s a disservice to voters of all backgrounds and political parties.
The National Popular Vote interstate compact is the solution.
This agreement binds states’ electoral votes to the popular vote winner and does away with the undemocratic Electoral College. This ensures that the winning candidate is the one with the most votes and that each American’s ballot counts equally. And it only goes into effect when enough states have signed on—currently, we’re about 60% of the way there. As of now, ten states and Washington, D.C. have joined the compact: Rhode Island, Vermont, Hawaii, Massachusetts, Maryland, Washington, New Jersey, Illinois, New York, and California.
National Popular Vote returns power to the people. It makes a vote in one state count just as much as a vote in any other, and it can even increase turnout. With the Electoral College, voters in states that always go red or always go blue feel no incentive to vote. With National Popular Vote, they can be assured that their voices matter.
In 2010, Massachusetts became the sixth state to pass National Popular Vote legislation after an aggressive campaign by Common Cause Massachusetts.
Additional questions? Check out our National Popular Vote FAQ.