BACKGROUND
State winner-take-all laws are the reason why the vast majority of American voters are politically irrelevant in presidential elections. These laws award all of a state's electoral votes to the candidate who gets the most votes in each separate state.
If a presidential candidate is ahead or behind by about 6 percentage points in a particular state, there is no realistic chance of changing the outcome in that state, and, hence, no reason for any candidate to pay any attention to that state's voters. Thus, presidential campaigns are concentrated on the small handful of states that are closely divided "battleground" states.
Winner-take-all laws are also what have allowed 5 of our 45 Presidents (including two of the last three) to come into office without winning the most popular votes nationwide.
The winner-take-all method of awarding electoral votes is not in the U.S. Constitution. It was not debated at the 1787 Constitutional Convention. It was not mentioned in the Federalist Papers. It was used by only three states in the first presidential election in 1789 (and all three repealed it by 1800).
Fortunately, the U.S. Constitution (Article II) gives states exclusive control over awarding their electoral votes: “Each State shall appoint, in such Manner as the Legislature thereof may direct, a Number of Electors….”
Thus, state winner-take-all laws may be changed in the same way that they were original enacted, namely by action of state legislatures. No federal constitutional amendment is required to repeal these state laws.
The National Popular Vote bill has been enacted by 15 states and the District of Columbia (together possessing 196 electoral votes), including 4 small states (DE, HI, RI, VT), 8 medium-sized states (CO, CT, MD, MA, NJ, NM, OR, WA), and 3 big states (CA, IL, NY). The bill will take effect when enacted by states with 74 more electoral votes (for a total of 270).
Most recently, a committee of the Virginia House of Delegates approved the National Popular Vote bill and sent it to the floor.