# Will the democrats enact the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact **URL:** \ **Category:** Politics & Elections\ **Created:** [November 4, 2026, 10:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-the-democrats-enact-the-national-popular-vote-interstate-compact/1034443 "2026-11-04T22:33:32Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![bump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2026, 9:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-the-democrats-enact-the-national-popular-vote-interstate-compact/1034443/42 "2026-11-06T21:32:13Z")
It wasn’t meant as anything to do with flyover states either; it was meant as a buffer against the people going nuts and electing someone unsuitable for the job; the thinking at the time was that the Electors would actually have some agency of their own, and would vote according to what was best for their states and the nation as a whole in the face of popular stupidity. Along the way, the idea got corrupted and between all of a state’s electors going to whoever won the state, and the expectations that the electors will abide by that, it’s become its own weird unrepresentative animal. I think largely the issues with it would be mooted if somehow the states agreed to proportionately allocate electors based on the popular vote- even the senatorial ones. That would be much more in line with the popular vote- you’d have had 16 Harris electoral votes in Texas and 24 Trump, as the state split 42% Harris, 56% Trump (rounded). ---
**Author:** ![commasense](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/commasense/32/3017_2.png) [@commasense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/commasense)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2026, 10:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-the-democrats-enact-the-national-popular-vote-interstate-compact/1034443/43 "2026-11-06T22:37:18Z")
I’m surprised no one here has mentioned that the main reason we have the electoral college was not to to protect small states as such, but [to protect slavery](https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/analysis-opinion/electoral-colleges-racist-origins). > The populations in the North and South were approximately equal, but roughly one-third of those living in the South were held in bondage. Because of its considerable, nonvoting slave population, that region would have less clout under a popular-vote system. The ultimate solution was an indirect method of choosing the president, one that could leverage the [three-fifths compromise](https://constitutioncenter.org/blog/the-three-fifths-compromise-rationalizing-the-irrational/), the Faustian bargain they’d already made to determine how congressional seats would be apportioned. With about 93 percent of the country’s slaves toiling in just five southern states, that region was the undoubted beneficiary of the compromise, increasing the size of the South’s congressional delegation by 42 percent. When the time came to agree on a system for choosing the president, it was all too easy for the delegates to resort to the three-fifths compromise as the foundation. The [peculiar system that emerged](http://people.uncw.edu/lowery/pls101/wilson_chapter_outlines/The%20Proslavery%20Origins%20of%20the%20Electoral%20College.pdf?inline=1) was the Electoral College. ---
**Author:** ![PhillyGuy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ed655f/32.png) [@PhillyGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PhillyGuy)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2026, 11:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-the-democrats-enact-the-national-popular-vote-interstate-compact/1034443/44 "2026-11-06T23:40:45Z")
> [@I\_Love\_Me\_Vol.I](#): > > Each of the 50 states gets to decide how they will choose a candidate to put their EVs behind. Under the federal constitution, each of the state legislatures gets to decide how the electors are chosen. In the early republic, the members of the legislature mostly decided on their own. Then deciding by popular vote became increasingly common, to the point that since 1864, electors are picked by popular vote in every presidential general election in every state. But each state legislature can go back to the old way whenever they wish (subject to rules for changing the state constitution, if the current rule is in their constitution). Or they could come up with an all-new way. So they can vote to use the Compact method, or they can go back to an older method. So long as they put the rules in place before the election, I see no problem. Possibly fun fact: My Pennsylvania is AFAIK the only state to always have used the statewide popular vote method of choosing electors. ---
**Author:** ![Buck\_Godot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/buck_godot/32/6573_2.png) [@Buck\_Godot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Buck_Godot)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2026, 4:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-the-democrats-enact-the-national-popular-vote-interstate-compact/1034443/45 "2026-11-07T04:12:39Z")
I’m all in favor of finding a way to get rid of the electoral college and going to a nation wide plurality (or better yet ranked choice) voting system, but I am leery of the Interstate compact Idea. The problem if the electoral system is interpreted in such a way as to allow such an interstate contract, it would mean that other not so benvolent interstate electoral contracts would also be allowed. Say for example the republican legislatures of ten small bright red states and seven large purplelish ones enter a contract that says all of their electoral votes would go the the candidate who won the popular vote in the majority of states in the contract. Then they could effectively steal the purple states electoral votes with impunity. Unless you can tell me why your contract would be found to be constitutional but the one I proposed is not, I’m not going to go down that path. ---
**Author:** ![commasense](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/commasense/32/3017_2.png) [@commasense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/commasense)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2026, 5:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-the-democrats-enact-the-national-popular-vote-interstate-compact/1034443/46 "2026-11-07T05:22:01Z")
What’s preventing such a group of states from entering into such a compact right now? Why would the existence of the NPV compact make it more likely that they would? Or problematic if they did? If the NPV compact were in place and some or all of the remaining states entered into a compact as you suggest, by definition they wouldn’t have enough electoral votes to change the outcome. I haven’t looked for your particular proposal, but the NPVIC site has an [_ **extremely** _ comprehensive list](https://www.nationalpopularvote.com/answering-myths) of answers to the objections people have made opposing the proposal. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2026, 12:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-the-democrats-enact-the-national-popular-vote-interstate-compact/1034443/47 "2026-11-07T12:49:04Z")
Not to pile on, but your comment sounds a lot like the worrywart “Don’t give the terrorists ideas!” comments that inevitably follow some noteworthy accident like that freighter that collapsed that bridge in Baltimore a few years ago. Believe me, the terrorists have already had that idea. If some evil RW MFer somewhere does have the idea of a “hijack the purple EVs” = “HIPE” compact, the _best_ way to forestall its implementation is to get enough states signed up to the NVPIC first. And NPVIC has a darn good head start over HIPE right now. ---
**Author:** ![Buck\_Godot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/buck_godot/32/6573_2.png) [@Buck\_Godot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Buck_Godot)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2026, 2:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-the-democrats-enact-the-national-popular-vote-interstate-compact/1034443/48 "2026-11-07T14:03:30Z")
I didn’t see anything on the list of myths that addresses my concern. They are all comparing the compact to the status quo as the only other game in town. In terms of ease of implementation, my Republican All Time Facicitator of Ultimate Control Compact (RATFUCC) would actually be easier to get a conscensus for as it could be done with as few as three states (Two ruby reds, and a third swing state to be stolen). While a fully implemented NPVIC would overrule my RATFUCC, the NPVIC only exists so long as it maintains the EC majority. If a change in the legislature results in a NPVIC state defecting to RATFUCC dropping NPVIC below this threshold than the protection disappears. As far as why the Republicans haven’t already tried something like this, you will have to ask them. But I suspect that primarily its because there is a general understanding that the president is chosen they have been for the last 200 plus years and that trying to radically change would be met with strong popular opposition and legal challenges. But once its generally accepted that the determination of president is decided primarily by states assigning electors according to legislation that is only indirectly associated with the vote count of the state, then the obvious next step is to manipulate that new system to maximal partisan advantage. ---
**Author:** ![Ludovic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2026, 3:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-the-democrats-enact-the-national-popular-vote-interstate-compact/1034443/49 "2026-11-07T15:08:25Z")
You only need to look at the recent state gerrymandering drama to see that retaliation from other states is a thing. I mean, I _agree_ with California’s gerrymander because of the actions of red states. There is _some_ value in being seen to not being the first to break norms even though the Republicans act like they don’t care about democratic norms. That said I am not sure that there would be a red compact in retaliation. It’s just that it’s more likely if NPVIC comes to fruition or even if it occupies a lot of the public discourse. What I think is more likely is that blue states that turn red would withdraw from the compact, so that the Democrats are only possibly hurting themselves unilaterally. ---
**Author:** ![commasense](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/commasense/32/3017_2.png) [@commasense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/commasense)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2026, 3:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-the-democrats-enact-the-national-popular-vote-interstate-compact/1034443/50 "2026-11-07T15:11:18Z")
[9.36 Myths about a Systematic Republican or Democratic Advantage in the Electoral College](https://www.nationalpopularvote.com/section_9.36) ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2026, 3:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-the-democrats-enact-the-national-popular-vote-interstate-compact/1034443/51 "2026-11-07T15:33:44Z")
> [@I\_Love\_Me\_Vol.I](#): > > I think all states count their votes the same way, more or less. It’s seems you are asserting that (e.g.) California’s “spare” Democratic votes should somehow be combined with Wyoming’s vote in order to magically make WY vote Blue even though the voters wanted a GOP. No, the point is that California and Wyoming shouldn’t even matter at all, for a vote for President. You’re not moving around people to change the way you count states; you’re just counting people, period. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2026, 4:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-the-democrats-enact-the-national-popular-vote-interstate-compact/1034443/52 "2026-11-07T16:17:41Z")
Certainly the historical argument is that in the 1700s we did elect the president by counting the states. Which, as cited upthread, was done _entirely_ to keep the slavers onside as the US was forming. We’re about 150 years late in scraping _everything_ related to that unspeakably evil but foundational compromise out of our governing institutions. The USA utterly missed its chance to tear that out while the CSA was alive & fighting, or just after it was defeated and politically irrelevant. So now we have to do it now. If NPVIC is the only way to neuter just one of those unspeakably evil relics, so be it. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2026, 4:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-the-democrats-enact-the-national-popular-vote-interstate-compact/1034443/53 "2026-11-07T16:25:07Z")
OK, let’s make this concrete. Let’s say that Pennsylvania gets a Republican majority in both houses and as governor, and they pass a law that says that their electoral votes will be assigned the same way as those of Idaho and Wyoming. Sure, they’re allowed to pass a law like that… but what then? Do you really think that the people of Pennsylvania would stand for a law like that? They’d immediately vote out everyone involved in that scheme in the next election, repeal that law, and go back to counting their own votes. At most, the temporary Republican majority could steal the electoral votes for one Presidential election, if they timed it right… but if we’re only looking to steal one election, they could just instead pass a law that says that they choose the electors directly (which would still have backlash, but probably less than the Wyoming-and-Idaho law). ---
**Author:** ![We\_re\_wolves\_not\_werewolves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/838e76/32.png) [@We\_re\_wolves\_not\_werewolves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/We_re_wolves_not_werewolves)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2026, 4:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-the-democrats-enact-the-national-popular-vote-interstate-compact/1034443/54 "2026-11-07T16:36:47Z")
> [@Atamasama](#): > > But clearly the Electoral College does an extremely terrible job of representing the will of the people The Constitution does not provide an explicit right for people to vote for President, so that is irrelevant. You only think you have that right because the states have mandated that popular votes within the state will determine its electors. So my answer to you is “yes, that’s true, but so what”. That’s not what the Constitution contemplated. States have always elected the President. The United States was founded as a federal republic of States, not a true democracy. As such, the President is the “President of the United States”, not “President of the _People_ of the United States”. ---
**Author:** ![Buck\_Godot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/buck_godot/32/6573_2.png) [@Buck\_Godot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Buck_Godot)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2026, 5:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-the-democrats-enact-the-national-popular-vote-interstate-compact/1034443/55 "2026-11-07T17:40:26Z")
That may be true, and hopefully would be. I just think we should be aware that when we find and exploit a loophole in the system in order jury rig a way to get it to work how we want, we should be aware that it opens it up for other people to exploit that same loophole to get things to work how they want. ---
**Author:** ![DSeid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dseid/32/20194_2.png) [@DSeid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DSeid)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2026, 5:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-the-democrats-enact-the-national-popular-vote-interstate-compact/1034443/56 "2026-11-07T17:45:52Z")
The questions of should and will are very different ones. Probably should, IMHO. But I highly doubt _will._ I don’t suspect the newly elected officials will consider doing that as the priority work they were elected to accomplish and won’t see doing it as in their individual political best interests. ---
**Author:** ![Atamasama](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/atamasama/32/12961_2.png) [@Atamasama](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atamasama)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2026, 10:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-the-democrats-enact-the-national-popular-vote-interstate-compact/1034443/57 "2026-11-07T22:17:07Z")
> [@We\_re\_wolves\_not\_werewolves](#): > > So my answer to you is “yes, that’s true, but so what”. The whole country was founded on the principle that people deserve proper representation, that’s what. When something is failing, you fix it. It’s like having a broken faucet that you don’t fix because, “it has always been that way.” That’s never a good answer to **anything**. ---
**Author:** ![We\_re\_wolves\_not\_werewolves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/838e76/32.png) [@We\_re\_wolves\_not\_werewolves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/We_re_wolves_not_werewolves)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2026, 11:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-the-democrats-enact-the-national-popular-vote-interstate-compact/1034443/58 "2026-11-07T23:02:08Z")
look, if you want to argue that direct election of the President is the way it should be, then fine, I really don’t have have no problem with that position. But that’s not how this Country was set up and changing it would be a drastic step. So it just kind of annoys me when people are just flippantly like “oh, we should totally change that” without recognizing that such a change would be a fundamental change to the type of government we have and a crucial shift in the fundamental principles of how the United States actually works. I know you understand these issues well, so I’m not accusing you of this, but it seems that most people that bring this up every time a Presidential election does not go as they want are not recognizing how drastic a change this would be to our basic system of a federal constitutional republic of states. ---
**Author:** ![Atamasama](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/atamasama/32/12961_2.png) [@Atamasama](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atamasama)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2026, 11:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-the-democrats-enact-the-national-popular-vote-interstate-compact/1034443/59 "2026-11-07T23:14:06Z")
> [@We\_re\_wolves\_not\_werewolves](#): > > look, if you want to argue that direct election of the President is the way it should be, then fine, I really don’t have have no problem with that position. I don’t see how that was in any way unclear. > [@We\_re\_wolves\_not\_werewolves](#): > > But that’s not how this Country was set up and changing it would be a drastic step. I’m going to share a quote with you… > [@We\_re\_wolves\_not\_werewolves](#): > > So my answer to you is “yes, that’s true, but so what”. Abolishing slavery was such a drastic step that it required a civil war, but it was justified and necessary, and the nation is far better off afterward. This isn’t anything nearly as drastic, yet it will make the country better and adhere properly to our principles. Sometimes we will set forth ideals that our laws don’t live up to, and it’s incumbent on us to be better and make our nation better with better laws and procedures. > [@We\_re\_wolves\_not\_werewolves](#): > > So it just kind of annoys me when people are just flippantly like “oh, we should totally change that” without recognizing that such a change would be a fundamental change to the type of government we have and a crucial shift in the fundamental principles of how the United States actually works. I actually share the same opinion. I don’t like that either. But that’s not what’s happening, either in this compact or in this thread. We realize it’s a huge change and it can’t happen at once, which is why this compact is just one step toward an ultimate goal which probably can’t happen for years, decades, maybe even generations. But it has to start somewhere. To partially paraphrase John F. Kennedy, “We don’t do these things because they are easy, but because they are hard.” ---
**Author:** ![Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmer_j.fudd/32/1211_2.png) [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elmer_J.Fudd)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2026, 2:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-the-democrats-enact-the-national-popular-vote-interstate-compact/1034443/60 "2026-11-08T02:01:36Z")
I despise the Electoral College as much as anybody in this thread but the right way to eliminate it is with a Constitutional amendment rather than a clunky and partisan end run. It is a drastic change in the way we select the President and it should require the same process it took to limit the number of presidential terms or expand the electorate to all adult citizens ---
**Author:** ![PhillyGuy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ed655f/32.png) [@PhillyGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PhillyGuy)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2026, 2:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-the-democrats-enact-the-national-popular-vote-interstate-compact/1034443/61 "2026-11-08T02:48:14Z")
> [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](#): > > It is a drastic change in the way we select the President and it should require the same process it took to limit the number of presidential terms or expand the electorate to all adult citizens If you mean the [fifteenth amendment](https://constitution.congress.gov/constitution/amendment-15/), giving Black men the right to vote, it took over a century to get broadly enforced. Law vs. amendment was debated at the time and it is far from clear that the approach taken was the quickest or most certain. As for the two term limit, it has never been tested. After the election this week, I suppose Trump is now less likely to put it to the test. But there’s no real enforcement mechanism. I think if Trump was nominated at the GOP convention, he would appear on ballots in states he was likely to win. And once winning the election, it would be hard to stop him from taking office. The advantage of laws is that they are far wordier than amendments, covering ambiguous situations and providing enforcement methods. It is true that you can both have an amendment and a law, as happened with the 15th amendment and 1965 Voting Rights Act. But once you have an amendment, there is a tendency to prematurely think the job is done. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-the-democrats-enact-the-national-popular-vote-interstate-compact/1034443.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-the-democrats-enact-the-national-popular-vote-interstate-compact/1034443.md?page=4)