Jack, after Donald Trump won the 2016 election–not because he had the most votes, but because he won the Electoral College—Daily Kos knew something needed to change.

In our despair over the post-election results and the weakness they revealed in our democracy, we started a petition demanding that the person who received the most votes nationwide be elected president. You may have even signed the petition, with over 2,600,000 signatures, it is Daily Kos's largest petition in our 20 year history.

For the last seven years, in state after state, Daily Kos has been working on the difficult, but attainable, goal of electing our president by national popular vote. We are not stopping until we achieve our goal. We need your help to support our long-term campaign by making a monthly $5 donation.

If you can't commit to donating monthly, a one-time donation of $5 will support our work to elect the president by national popular vote.

While you likely signed our petition, you may not know how we have continued to pursue the campaign it supports. For the past seven years, we have been working on a state-by-state basis to help pass the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact (NPVIC). This is an agreement among states to award their electoral votes to whichever presidential candidate wins the national popular vote. The compact only takes effect after states totaling 270 electoral votes have passed laws to join it.

Since 2016, we have worked with state and local partners in Connecticut, Delaware, Oregon, and New Mexico to pass the measure. This slow, deliberate work has increased the electoral votes of states and territories joining the compact to 195, putting us only 75 electoral votes away from victory. We were also narrowly defeated in Maine, Nevada and Virginia, which would have added another 23 electoral votes to the total.

Currently, we have active campaigns in Minnesota and Michigan. In Minnesota, the measure has passed the state House and has been introduced in the Senate. On March 7, the Michigan House Elections Committee held its first hearing to have Michigan join the NPVIC. A companion bill is in the state Senate.

If Michigan (15 electoral votes) and Minnesota (10 electoral votes) both join the National Popular vote compact this year, a total of 220 electoral votes will be represented—just 50 votes shy of what is needed to finally elect our president by national popular vote. It might take us another decade, but this is so doable and we are in it for the long haul.

In a democracy, every vote should matter equally—and the candidate who receives the most votes should win. Can you support our longest campaign ever to elect the President of the United States by the national popular vote by making a monthly $5 donation?

If you can't commit to donating monthly, a one-time donation of $5 will support our work to help pass the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact (NPVIC).

Thanks for all you do,
Amanda McKay, Daily Kos

If you wish to donate by mail instead, please send a check to Daily Kos, PO Box 70036, Oakland, CA, 94612. Contributions to Daily Kos are not tax deductible.