Dear John,

The Electoral College was designed in 1787 to give slave-holding states an electoral advantage over free states with larger populations. The goal was to get Southern states to ratify the U.S. Constitution and it worked.  

Rejecting the standard of one person, one vote for electing the president, every state gets at least 3 electoral votes, regardless of how small their population. It’s created a permanent thumb on the scale that has too often resulted in minority rule by the party that lost the popular vote.

In fact, it’s already happened four times in our history, and two of these elections -- George W. Bush and Donald Trump -- happened in the last 25 years. Given the country’s extreme polarization, we can expect this undemocratic outcome to occur repeatedly, until we can abolish -- or find a work-around for -- the outdated Electoral College.

Now there is a solution to fix this glaring structural flaw in our electoral system.

A movement has been building for nearly 20 years which would functionally abolish the Electoral College and let the people pick the president by popular vote, and it works without the need for a hard-to-pass constitutional amendment. It’s called the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact.

Strengthen democracy! One person, one vote. Call for the Electoral College to be abolished by passing the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact now!

Here’s how it would work:

• The National Popular Vote Interstate Compact is an agreement among the states that will go into effect only after it has been enacted by enough states to represent 270 electoral votes -- enough to elect the president.

• Once in effect, every member of the compact will cast its electoral votes for the popular vote winner.

• The candidate who gets the most total votes nationwide will be elected president!

Ending the Electoral College would also provide stability to our elections.

Think of it this way: Joe Biden won seven million more votes than Donald Trump in 2020, but Trump was able to cast suspicion over states where the margin was much closer, making the election appear much closer than it was.

Even in 2000, when George W. Bush won Florida by slightly more than 500 votes when the Supreme Court stopped the full recount, Al Gore’s national margin was more than 500,000.

Already, states representing 209 electoral votes have signed on to the compact. We need to keep public pressure on to get to 270 and effectively end the Electoral College once and for all!

Imagine how different our country would look if the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact had been in place over the last quarter century. Democrats would have won 5 of the last 6 elections. George W. Bush and Donald Trump would never have set foot in the White House. There would have been no Iraq War, no January 6 insurrection, and Roe v. Wade would still be the law of the land.

If they wanted to, every single state could join the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact today. All we need is the political will. The stakes are simply too high to stop pushing, including for the 2028 election and beyond.

The National Popular Vote Interstate Compact would effectively abolish the Electoral College. Add your name to call on states to pass it now.

Thank you for helping to pass this crucial reform!

Robert Reich
Inequality Media Civic Action