Dear John,

One of the most basic principles of democracy is that the candidate who gets the most votes wins.

Except, of course, when it comes to the President of the United States.

Five U.S. Presidents, including two of the last four, have been elected while losing the popular vote – thanks to the current undemocratic Electoral College system. And because of population shifts in recent decades, it’s a virtual certainty that it will happen again, possibly as soon as this year.

But we have a tremendous opportunity right now to take a big step toward ending the broken Electoral College system through the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact.

The National Popular Vote Interstate Compact is a legal agreement among the states to award their electoral votes to the winner of the national popular vote. Once enough states join the compact to add up to 270 electoral votes, the current Electoral College system gets sent to the dustbin of history.

Earlier this year, Maine became the latest state to join, and we’re hearing that Michigan may sign on this summer as well. That would bring us to 224 electoral votes, just 46 away from the 270 we need!

So I'm asking you today: Will you donate $5 a month to Inequality Media to help spread the word and end the undemocratic Electoral College system?

Yes, Robert! I’ll start a monthly donation to help Inequality Media educate the public and end the undemocratic Electoral College system.

No, I’m sorry, I can’t chip in monthly.

The last two presidents to win the White House without winning the popular vote were Republicans, but this is NOT a partisan issue. In fact, in 2004, John Kerry came within just a couple percentage points in Ohio of winning the presidency while losing by the nationwide popular vote by over 3 million votes.

The biggest problem about the current Electoral College system is that candidates can almost completely ignore the needs and concerns of roughly 80% of the country — that’s right, 80% of the country — because everyone knows that any close election will be decided by a handful of battleground states.

So unless you live in Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Michigan, Georgia, Arizona, or maybe one or two other states, your chances of seeing a presidential candidate campaign in your state is next to zero.

Now, I don’t want to mislead anyone. As much progress as we’ve made, it would take a major miracle for the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact to go into effect before the 2024 presidential election. Frankly, it’s not happening.

But every state that joins brings us closer — and if we can add Michigan’s 15 electoral votes to the total number committed to the agreement, we will be just one big push from ending the current Electoral College system forever. And now is the time to keep the momentum going. Will you donate $5 a month to Inequality Media to get out the truth and help end the current, undemocratic Electoral College system?

Click here to start your monthly donation and support our efforts to educate the public and end the current, undemocratic Electoral College system.

Or, if you can't chip in monthly, click here.

Thank you for helping us defend our democracy,

Robert Reich
Inequality Media