The Constitution’s method for electing the president is under new scrutiny in Nevada.
The Electoral College gives each state votes equal to its congressional representation. Most states award all of them to the statewide popular vote winner, and 270 are needed to win the White House. The system was a 1787 compromise between large and small states. Five times the candidate who lost the national popular vote still became president, most recently in 2000 and 2016.
Democrats have spent years promoting the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact as a way around a constitutional amendment. States that join pledge their electoral votes to the national popular vote winner once the participating states hold at least 270 votes. Eighteen states and the District of Columbia have already signed on and control 222 votes. Nevada’s six votes put it among the states that could help the compact cross the threshold after Democrats won full control of state government on Nov. 3.
Governor-elect Aaron Ford (D) said he wants Nevada to join. Speaking to KOLO-TV, he said, “Looking at the Electoral College, understanding the frankly racist underpinnings of it in the first place leads me to believe that we need to get rid of it.” He later told MS-NOW he would sign a bill assigning Nevada’s electoral votes to the national popular vote winner if one reached his desk.
Nevada Democrats passed a bill to join the compact in 2019. Democratic Gov. Steve Sisolak vetoed it. He wrote that the agreement “could diminish the role of smaller states like Nevada in national electoral contests and force Nevada’s electors to side with whoever wins the nationwide popular vote, rather than the candidate Nevadans choose.”
Supporters of the compact say it would ensure the popular vote winner becomes president. Critics say it would reduce the influence of smaller states such as Nevada, require electors to vote against their own state’s choice, and bypass the constitutional amendment process. They also note the absence of uniform national standards for recounts and vote counting.
