John, please see the important call to action from Robert Reich below and then join the campaign by adding your name today. -- The PCCC Team
EMAIL FROM ROBERT REICH:
Throughout our country’s history, the president of the United States has been chosen not by popular vote, but by the undemocratic Electoral College, and this has created a significant imbalance throughout the judicial branch.
In fact, five of our 46 Presidents have come into office without winning the popular votes nationwide. That’s right, five times in history, the actual LOSER of the popular vote has still become the President of the United States.
We can fix this so it never happens again.
Reform is long overdue and the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact is a real reform that could work to elect the President of the United States by majority vote.
Should someone else's vote count more than yours?
For 80% of Americans, that’s exactly what’s happening. Their vote for president isn’t nearly as valuable as the vote of someone in a so-called “swing state.” Why?
Most Americans live in states that have become so predictably Democratic or Republican that candidates take voters for granted. Presidential elections now turn on the dwindling number of swing states that could go either way, giving in turn, voters in these states huge leverage. The 2020 election came down to just over 40,000 votes spread across just three swing states. 2016 came down to fewer than 80,000 votes also across three states. Yet, in each of those elections, the national popular vote wasn’t even close.
In fact, in the last five elections, the winners of the popular vote beat their opponents by an average of 5 million votes. This means the current state-by-state, electoral college system of electing presidents is creating ever-closer contests in an ever-smaller number of closely divided states for elections that aren’t actually close.
Making it worse, the current system presents a growing threat to the peaceful transition of power. These razor-thin swing state margins can invite post-election recounts, audits, and lawsuits -- even attempted coups -- because a losing candidate might be able to actually overturn 40,000 votes with these techniques. Overturning 5 million votes would be nearly impossible.
Here’s how the National Popular Vote Compact works: If enough states agree to assign their Electoral College electors to the winner of the national popular vote in presidential races, rather than the state’s own popular vote -- we can guarantee the presidency to the candidate who receives the most popular votes nationwide without needing to amend the Constitution.
The compact won’t take effect until enough states have joined to guarantee Electoral College victory to the popular vote winner. So far fifteen states and D.C. have already signed on, totaling 195 Electoral College votes out of the 270 needed to secure a national popular vote victory.
With enough states on board, we can make sure America never again elects a president who loses the national popular vote.
No longer would 80 percent of us be effectively disenfranchised from presidential campaigns. And a handful of votes in swing states would no longer determine the winner -- inviting recounts, audits, litigation, and attempted coups that threaten our democracy.
It’s past time for the candidate who wins the most votes from the American people to win.
Thank you for joining the campaign today.
-- Robert Reich, Inequality Media Civic Action
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