This commentary is by Matthew Cecere of Waterbury. He is a social studies teacher at a local public high school.
Steps to change presidential voting are in motion, and this should give us some optimism.
With Vermont’s three electoral votes for the president all but accounted for, we are largely left on the outside looking in as swing states once again will ultimately decide the election. In this situation, it is easy to bemoan how our votes appear to be less valuable than votes in those swing states.
The current Electoral College policy leaves us in a continuously anxious situation where there is always the potential for a discrepancy between which candidate wins the national popular vote and the candidate who wins the required 270 electoral votes. To reform or abolish the Electoral College outright would require a constitutional amendment, which seems extremely unlikely in today’s partisan political climate.
The National Popular Vote Interstate Compact is looking to change this. This interstate agreement allocates electoral votes to the winner of the national popular vote. It has been passed into law in several states already (including Vermont). However, given the fact that the only two modern candidates to win the popular vote but lose the electoral vote were Democrats, this agreement has only been passed in state legislatures that often lean more liberal.
This has the potential to change. Already in several swing states such as Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina and Virginia, the agreement is making its way through state legislatures. If it were to pass in these and a few additional states, the states in the compact will pledge to allocate their electoral votes to the winner of the popular vote. This will happen regardless of state results and without a constitutional amendment.
Political forecasters and constitutional lawyers more informed than I would probably urge some caution to anyone who believes that this agreement will pass, not to mention potential Supreme Court challenges. However, the very fact that we can look at how this agreement has grown from a fantasy to a legitimate possibility should give many voters hope for change with our presidential election.
Voters in states such as Vermont may have reason to hope that their vote could have a national impact in the very near future on a level we have never seen before in our republic.
Read the story on VTDigger here: Matthew Cecere: The National Popular Vote Interstate Compact could give Vermont voters more impact.