In a strong bipartisan vote for the proposition that the presidential candidate with most popular votes should always be elected president, both chambers of the New York state legislature on approved New York's entry into the National Popular Vote compact on March 25. A majority of both Republicans and Democrats voted in support of NPV, with a vote of 57-4 in the Senate and 102-33 in the House. 

The bill now goes to Gov. Andrew Cuomo for his signature.  Nine states and the District of Columbia have already passed the compact. The addition of New York would bring the compacting states’ total to 165 electoral votes, 61% of the 270 votes needed to activate the compact for the next presidential election.

More states are ready  to take action on National Popular Vote. As New York shows, National Popular Vote is not a partisan issue. As wins in small states like Rhode Island and Vermont and big states like California show, it is not an issue involving how big a state is. Rather, National Popular Vote is about the simple principle that in a representative democracy, the candidate with the most votes should win, and every vote in every state should be equal in every election.

To help make National Popular Vote the law by the 2016 presidential election, ask your legislators to pass the bill today. We've shared a message below from National Popular Vote to make it easier for you to act. 

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The Electoral College needs fixing because presidential candidates regularly ignore 40 of the 50 states under the current system of electing the President. Your action NOW can make a difference because the National Popular Vote bill is expected to come up for a floor vote in the legislatures of several states in the next week or two. 

Please take a moment to e-mail your state legislators  to tell them to support the National Popular Vote bill. 

Presidential campaigns routinely ignore 40 of the 50 states because electoral votes are currently awarded to the candidate who gets the most popular votes within each separate state. The result of this winner-take-all rule is that candidates ignore states where they are comfortably ahead or hopelessly behind. 

A mere 12 closely divided “battleground” states received all of the 253 general-election campaign events in the 2012 campaign. Just four states (Ohio, Florida, Virginia, and Iowa) received two-thirds of the campaign events (and a corresponding fraction of the campaign expenditures). 



The winner-take-all rule adversely affects governance. Sitting Presidents pay inordinate attention to closely divided “battleground” states. “Battleground” states receive over 7% more grants than spectator states. A “battleground” state can expect to receive twice as many presidential disaster declarations as a spectator state. The locations of Superfund enforcement actions reflect a state’s battleground status. Federal exemptions from the No Child Left Behind law have been characterized as “‘no swing state left behind.” Under the National Popular Vote bill, the Electoral College would be reformed so that the presidential candidate who receives the most popular votes in all 50 states and DC will become President. 

Under a national popular vote, every voter in every state would matter in every presidential election. 

The states have the constitutional authority to change their method of awarding electoral votes and thereby establish a national popular vote for President. The National Popular Vote bill has already been enacted into law by 10 states, including four small jurisdictions (Hawaii, Vermont, Rhode Island, and the District of Columbia), three medium-sized states (Washington state, Maryland, and Massachusetts), and three big states (Illinois, California, and New Jersey). The bill has also made progress by passing at least one legislative house in an additional 12 states. 

If you believe that every vote should be equal in voting for President and that the candidate with the most votes in all 50 states and DC should become President, please take a moment to e-mail your state legislators to tell them to support the National Popular Vote bill in your state legislature. The National Popular Vote bill would guarantee that the candidate who receives the most popular votes in all 50 states (and DC) would become President. The current system has elected a second-place candidate in 4 of the nation’s 57 presidential elections. 

As the Sarasota Florida Herald Tribune said: "The most compelling and practical alternative is promoted by a bipartisan group called National Popular Vote. The NPV  proposal calls for legislatures to pass bills committing their state's electoral votes to the candidate who receives the most popular votes nationwide; the bill would take effect only when enacted by states that together have enough electoral votes to elect a president."

Learn more at www.NationalPopularVote.com. 

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