National Popular Vote: Changing the Way We Elect Presidents

23ABC News

The race for president in 2024 is heating up but there's another campaign happening that could drastically change the way candidates run their campaigns.

Transcript

00:00 >> All right, the race for president in 2024 is heating up, but there's another campaign

00:05 happening that could drastically change the way candidates run their campaigns.

00:09 Congressional correspondent Stephanie Liebergen explains.

00:11 >> Every four years, the presidential election comes down to a handful of critical swing states,

00:18 thanks to the Electoral College. But for nearly two decades, an effort has been slowly gaining

00:23 steam that would guarantee the candidate who wins the national popular vote ends up in the White

00:28 House. >> I can't think of a single redeeming

00:30 quality to the current system. >> For more than 15 years, Pat Rosensteil

00:34 has been trying to change the way we elect our president.

00:37 >> Every voter in every state should be politically relevant in every presidential election.

00:42 And national popular vote is the only way to do that because it guarantees the presidency

00:47 to the candidate who wins the most popular votes in all 50 states.

00:50 >> He's talking about the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact, and here's how it would work.

00:56 The Constitution gives states the power to decide how to award their electoral votes.

01:00 Under this proposal, states in the compact agree to give their electoral votes to whoever wins

01:05 the national popular vote, regardless of how that state's residents vote.

01:09 For the compact to take effect, states representing at least 270 electoral votes,

01:14 the minimum it needed to win the presidency, have to sign on.

01:17 >> When states with 65 more electoral votes say they wanna have a national popular vote for

01:22 president, we're gonna have one. And it doesn't matter where your viewers are hearing this,

01:27 we're gonna make them relevant in presidential elections.

01:30 >> Maryland was the first state to join in 2007. Fast forward to 2023, when Minnesota

01:36 became the 17th jurisdiction to join, pushing the total electoral vote count to 205.

01:42 In Michigan, state representative Kerri Ryengans is working to make her state number 18.

01:47 >> I had to win the most votes in my district to be elected. I think the president should

01:50 just have to do the same thing. >> She says her bill has wide bipartisan

01:54 support. The issue has been introduced many times before in Michigan, but she thinks the momentum

02:00 this time around could get it across the finish line.

02:02 >> It's not just party control, it's really the groundswell that we've been having for democracy.

02:08 Labor groups and environmental groups have been adding democratic focus of democracy, voting,

02:16 voting rights, voting accessibility as part of their platforms for the work that they're doing.

02:21 >> Five times in the history of the US, the winner of the Electoral College

02:26 lost the popular vote. Despite that, opponents of the interstate compact say there's no need

02:31 to fix something that isn't broken. They argue the current system preserves the

02:35 influence of smaller states. >> Candidates would be able to ignore

02:39 largely more rural, less populated states. They would concentrate on the big cities

02:46 that also have the densest media market. So this would actually be worse for states like Montana.

02:53 >> But many states are already overlooked. In the final weeks before the 2020 election,

02:58 96% of presidential campaign events were held in just 12 states. And popular vote advocates say

03:04 their proposal will allow voters in Wisconsin or Florida to hold the same value as voters in

03:10 Wyoming or Oklahoma. Ryan Ganz believes that principle of one person, one vote is of top

03:15 importance. >> I'm not trying to have us get rid of the

03:18 Electoral College right now. That's not on my radar at the moment for this. What we're trying

03:23 to do is use the power of the Electoral College and make sure it's aligned with the national will

03:28 of the people. >> When the compact reaches 270 votes,

03:32 Rosenstiel expects legal challenges, like the argument that it needs congressional approval.

03:38 But he is confident that the national popular vote is legal and constitutional. And he believes it

03:44 will be in effect for the presidential election in 2028. Stephanie Liebergen, Scripps News, Washington.

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