How to Discuss the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact
Author: Pam Wolff
A side-long glance was all he needed to know that his partner was frustrated. Her pacing had slowed, and her voice was trembling. She couldn’t believe her candidate had lost the presidential election. How could this have happened?
She had worked hard recruiting friends and neighbors to help her with writing 500 postcards to voters in swing states. She also made sure those postcards arrived two weeks before the election. Each carried a timely reminder to get out and vote. He watched as she spoke of feeling betrayed by her country, betrayed by the 90,000,000 citizens who didn’t vote.
He took her hands in his and asked her about those who didn’t vote - what reasons could they have had? She sighed, “Too many of them felt their votes wouldn’t matter because of the Electoral College.”
Understanding the Electoral College
What exactly is the Electoral College? It's a tool to manage the election of the president and vice president of the United States. As outlined in the Constitution, it consists of 538 electors from all 50 states and Washington, DC. Within this system, states reserve the constitutional right to manage the details of delegating electors, and each state has its own process. Generally, the electors pledge to vote for the candidate who won the popular vote in their state. You may know this as the “winner-takes-all (WTA)” approach to voting.
The number of electors equals each state’s Representatives and Senators in Congress. For example, Washington, DC has three electors. To win the presidency, a candidate must win a majority of the electoral votes: at least 270 of the 538.
An Accessible Option
Voters from both parties and across the country want to abolish the Electoral College. Why? The WTA approach to awarding electoral votes is dissatisfying. This system gives the candidate who wins the popular vote in that state all electoral votes, even if the opposing candidate also won a large share of the vote.
WTA was not part of the original design of the Electoral College, established in 1787. Over the years, states slowly began adopting WTA, typically for partisan reasons. The WTA system was heavily criticized, and calls to reform the Electoral College started by the mid-1800s.
The Electoral College set the stage for “swing states” to become candidates’ campaigning priority. A swing state is a state in which each party has comparable levels of support. These states offer the opportunity for a candidate from both parties to win all that state’s electoral votes. In 2024, presidential campaigns primarily focused on seven swing states. Unfortunately, this campaigning approach often comes at the expense of other states, which are typically neglected by candidates. As a result, voters in non-swing states may feel invisible. These voters ask, “What’s the point of voting when candidates won’t even visit us?”
Have you and your family doubted the importance of your votes? Have you wondered if there’s a better way of making votes count? Good news! There is a way. We can reform the Electoral College using the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact (NPVIC). This system has the same constitutional and legal foundation as the Electoral College. It also makes things fairer for all voters.
A Democratic Voting Process
The NPVIC reforms the Electoral College through an agreement among participating states. This agreement awards the electoral votes of participating states to the winner of the national popular vote. Through this mechanism, NPVIC gives equal weight to every vote, in every state. It takes the emphasis off the swing states.
As of January 2025, 17 states and Washington, DC have adopted legislation to join the NPVIC. They represent 209 of the 270 electoral votes needed for the NPVIC to go into effect. This means that the country only needs 61 more electoral votes for the majority of Electoral College delegates to be pledged to the national popular vote winner.
Convincing Other States to Join NPVIC
Contact your state representatives and senators to support the NPVIC. Urge them to pass legislation to join the Compact. 17 states and Washington, DC have already done so. The League of Women Voters has endorsed it, too.
How close is this adoption? The NPVIC has passed at least one legislative chamber in 7 states: Arkansas, Arizona, Michigan, North Carolina, Nevada, Oklahoma, and Virginia. Together, these states represent 74 electoral votes. If these states enact NPVIC into law, the NPVIC will take effect.
Here are the states that have already enacted NPVIC legislation:
Source: https://www.ncsl.org/elections-and-campaigns/national-popular-vote - Retrieved: June 20, 2025
Final Thoughts
The NPVIC:
Makes sure the candidate who gets the most votes wins
Incentivizes voters to get out and vote because it gives equal weight to nationwide votes
Encourages candidates to campaign in all states, not only swing states
Motivates candidates to focus on national issues that are important to most voters
Needs 61 more electoral votes from states enacting NPVIC legislation
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