The Yes On National Popular Vote campaign in Michigan is a key step to achieving the national goal of guaranteeing the Presidency to the candidate who gets the most popular votes in all 50 states and DC.

Your support now for the initiative petition in Michigan is critical, because Wednesday is our first reporting deadline. Your support will help get the petition into circulation and educate voters about this important issue.

The shortcomings of the current system of electing the President stem from state "winner-take-all" laws that award all of a state's electoral votes to the candidate receiving the most popular votes in each separate state.

These winner-take-all laws result in the Presidency being decided by a few thousand votes in a few closely divided states. In 2000, just 537 votes in Florida decided the national outcome.

Two of our last 4 Presidents have come into office without getting the most popular votes nationally.

Moreover, 2 of the last 6 presidential elections have been near-misses (2004 and 2020).

In 2020, if 5,229 voters in Arizona, 5,890 in Georgia, and 10,342 in Wisconsin had changed their minds, Donald Trump would have remained President -- despite Joe Biden's lead of over 7,000,000 votes nationally. more

Real or imagined irregularities in closely divided states invite uncertainty, recounts, hair-splitting legal disputes where judges decide elections, and a loss of confidence in elections. The fragility of the current system contributed to violence on January 6, 2021.

Also, the outsized importance of a few votes in a few states is a virtual invitation to foreign or domestic interference in our elections.

A national popular vote will bring stability to the system by preventing the national outcome from depending on a few thousand votes in a few states in an election with 158,000,000 votes.

You can help enact a National Popular Vote for President. Your support will help fund efforts to secure enough signatures on the initiative petition to let the voters decide this issue.

The U.S. Constitution gives the states exclusive power to choose the method of awarding their electoral votes.

The current state-by-state winner-take-all method of awarding electoral votes was not the Founding Fathers' choice.  It was never debated at the Constitutional Convention, or mentioned in the Federalist Papers. Winner-take-all was used by only three states in the nation's first presidential election in 1789 (and all three abandoned it by 1800). more

Under the National Popular Vote law, everyone's vote throughout the country will be counted directly for that individual voter's choice for President. Your vote will no longer be cancelled out at the state level just because you voted differently than the majority of other voters in your state.

The National Popular Vote law will come into effect when enacted by states with a majority of the electoral votes (270 of 538).

Then, when the Electoral College meets in mid-December, the candidate getting the most popular votes in all 50 states and DC will get all the electoral votes from the enacting states. That is, the candidate receiving the most popular votes nationwide will get at least 270 electoral votes, and therefore become President.

Under the current system, presidential candidates have no reason to pay attention to voters in states where they are safely ahead or hopelessly behind. The fleeting nature of battleground status was illustrated by Michigan being ignored in 2 of the last 4 presidential elections (in 2008 and 2012 when Michigan was not closely divided).

Under National Popular Vote, every voter, in every state will be politically relevant in every presidential election.

A majority of Republican senators and a majority of Democratic senators in Michigan sponsored National Popular Vote as recently as 2018. The Michigan House approved it several years ago. Nonetheless, this common-sense legislation has yet to be approved by the legislature. more

Initiative petitions in Michigan require the signatures of 340,047 voters. If both houses of the legislature do not enact the petition, the voters then get to vote on whether to enact National Popular Vote in a statewide election. If the voters approve, Michigan would join the growing group of states supporting a national popular vote for President.

15 states and the District of Columbia have already enacted National Popular Vote into law. Together, they have 195 of the 270 electoral votes needed to put the law into effect nationally. 3,529 state legislators around the country have endorsed National Popular Vote. more

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Thank you.

Paid for with regulated funds by Yes On National Popular Vote of Michigan. P.O. Box 2943, Southfield, Michigan 48037