I believe that a fundamental principle of democracy is that every vote for president should count equally. The presidency is the only elective office that represents all the people in the country, but the president-elect is not always guaranteed to be the candidate who receives the majority of votes in the whole country. In 48 of 50 states, whichever candidate wins the most votes in the state receives ALL the Electoral College votes for president and vice president. The votes of those in the minority do not count.  

A significant consequence of the mismatch between the popular vote and the Electoral College vote is that five out of 47 presidents did not win the popular vote. In the past seven elections, two presidents – Bush (2000) and Trump (2016) – were elected by winning the Electoral College vote without winning the popular vote. This winner-take-all approach produces anti-democratic outcomes and must be altered so that all voters in every state have their votes counted when electing the president.  

Another effect of the Electoral College system is that it focuses campaign efforts primarily in battleground states. In 2024, 94% of presidential election events were held in just 7 states. States outside the battlegrounds get little to no attention from candidates. This results in lower voter participation in the non-battleground states, along with tens of millions of voters being ignored. Because of this, far more federal resources are directed to battleground states – at a significant cost to the rest of the nation.

To assure that every vote counts in our state, I urge the North Carolina Legislature to pass the National Popular Vote Bill, moving our state and the nation closer to making every vote count in all of America.

The National Popular Vote will not take effect until the number of electors in the group of states signing on totals 270. Once the 270 votes threshold has been reached, each state that passed the bill will award all its electoral votes to the candidate who won the National Popular Vote.  At that time, every vote will count, every vote will be equal, and whoever wins the most votes in the nation will be elected president. A major benefit of the National Popular Vote is that no Constitutional amendment would be required. So far, 17 states and the District of Columbia, with a total of 209 of the 270 required electoral votes, have agreed to the National Popular Vote.   

This will not eliminate the Electoral College, but it will change how it operates. When the states that have passed the National Popular Vote Bill collectively have at least 270 electoral votes, it will guarantee that the presidential candidate with the most votes nationwide will be elected, since that number is more than half of the total 538 electors in the 50 states plus the District of Columbia.