National Popular Vote launches direct Presidential election plan
Members of the National Popular Vote campaign are gathered here at the National Press Club to launch a state-based plan to implement direct election of the President of the United States. The plan is outlined in Every Vote Equal: A State-Based Plan for Electing the President by National Popular Vote.
Also in attendance:
- Congressman John Anderson, former independent Presidential candidate and FairVote Chairman
- Senator Birch Bayh
- Congressman John Buchanan
- Atty. Barry Fadem of NPV, co-author
- Dr. John Koza, co-author
- Rob Richie, FairVote Executive Director and co-author
- Chellie Pingree, President and CEO of Common Cause
- members of the press
- members of the public
The plan is a law any state can enact to allocate all its Electoral College votes to the national, popular winner. The interstate compact would not go into effect until enough states had signed on such that the sum of their electoral votes is a majority of those in the College, guaranteeing election to the popular winner.
Update:
More coverage of the plan in:
Rick Hasen's Election Law blog
Op-ed by FairVote's Rob Richie and Ryan O'Donnell at Op-ed News