Direct Election of the President: A Proposed New Program Item for LWVNC

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Suzanne Fisher

League of Women Voters Asheville-Buncombe County

May 2023

Process to get Direct Election of President added to LWVNC Program

• LWVAB, LWVAB National Popular Vote Task Force, and Suzanne Fisher proposed this in response to the survey sent out in early 2023.
• Program Committee discussed this, asked for more information, and recommended this addition to LWVNC Board as part of the total Program.
• LWVNC Board concurred with this and other recommendations of the Program Committee.
• Proposed Program Zoom is May 17, 2023 at 5:30 pm
• Will be discussed and voted at the LWVNC Convention.

Why Should LWVNC Add Direct Election of the President to Program?

• LWVUS focus in Making Democracy Work; no study needed; supported by several local leagues
• Momentum is building with several states likely to pass this year
• Growing awareness that the Electoral College is a threat to democratic institutions

Presidential Elections versus Other Offices

For over 500,000 elected offices in the United States at the local, city, county, state and Federal level, the candidate with the most votes is the winner. This is direct election.

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For the President/Vice President the election is indirect.

The Electoral College

�“Each State shall appoint, in such Manner as the Legislature thereof may direct, a Number of Electors” � - Article II, Section I of the U.S. Constitution

This is a state-by-state decision; it is an exclusive and plenary power

of the states.

When we cast our ballot are not actually voting

for the candidate slate listed, but for a slate of

Electors pledged to that candidate.

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Outcomes of Winner Take All and Battleground State Campaigning

During General Election campaigns

• Campaign efforts (events, polling, media buys) and national party support concentrated in battleground states
• Media coverage focus
• Issues discussed
• Depressed voter turnout in non-battleground states
• Disproportionate influence of battleground states
• Not all votes equal
• Second place presidents and near misses

During Presidency

• More visits by President, Vice President, Cabinet
• FEMA disaster declarations – double
• Policies emphasized
• Higher discretionary spending
• Second place president does not have national mandate or reflect the will of the people

We have had 5 second place Presidents

Example of one of the 16 Near Misses that have Occurred

Prediction for 2024

• 9 Swing States and 1 competitive district in both Maine and Nebraska
• 109 Electoral College Votes will decide winner – the President of the battleground states

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Future - Options to Address the Situation

• Change the United States Constitution; with over 800 attempts to alter the Electoral College only one has succeed – the 12^th Amendment

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• Since how states vote in the Electoral College is a matter of state law, those laws can be changed or repealed exactly as they were enacted, by passing a new state law.

LWVUS Position & National Popular Vote

• 1970: Supported direct election by popular vote; testified and lobbied Congress to replace Electoral College with direct election
• 1997: Called for abolition of Electoral College and direct election of President
• 2002: Convention voted to expand and update position
• 2008: Convention voted to study the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact 2010: Convention adopted concurrence to support National Popular Vote until Electoral College is eliminated was adopted
• 2018: Convention voted to add National Popular Vote to Making Democracy Work
• 2019: Established National Popular Vote Interstate Compact Task Force: https://www.lwv.org/NPVtaskforce
• 2022 Convention voted to make a new category in Making Democracy Work: Direct Election of the President (including both abolition of the Electoral College by Constitutional Amendment and National Popular Vote).

https://www.lwv.org/making-democracy-workr

• Moonshot effort to end the Electoral College has a 50 year time line; call for participants in committees will come sometime in 2023

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What is the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact?

• A constitutionally conservative, state-based, nonpartisan approach begun in 2006 that retains the Electoral College and the power of the states to control how the President is elected
• The compact will go into effect when states representing 270 electoral votes join via legislation
• The compact will make every person’s vote equal throughout the United States and ensure that every vote, in every state, will be politically relevant in every presidential election.

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15 states + DC �195 electoral votes

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CA, CO, CT, DC, DE, HI, IL, MA, MD, NJ, NM, NY, OR, RI, VT, WA

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72% of the way there towards electing the President by National Popular Vote

Status based on 2020 Census Results

Status in North Carolina

• May 14, 2007: the North Carolina Senate passed the National Popular Vote bill. (SB 954).
• March 2017: Senators Chaudhuri and Waddell introduced the National Popular Vote bill into the North Carolina Senate: SB440 - passed out of Rules Committee, filed but no vote.
• February 2019: Senators Nickel, Chaudhuri, Waddell, and Searcy introduced the National Popular Vote bill into the North Carolina Senate: SB104 – passed out of Rules Committee, filed but no vote.
• 2021: Bills were not introduced in House or Senate.
• February 2023: HB191 Introduced by Kelly Alexander (CM); co-sponsored by John Autry, (CM), Pricey Harrison (Triad), Abe Jones (Wake), Carolyn Logan(CM), Marvin Lucas (Wake), Nasif Majeed, (CM), and Caleb Rudow (AB)!

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Why Should LWVNC Add this to Program?

• Supported by 4 local leagues: Asheville-Buncombe, Charlotte Mecklenburg, Dare, Moore
• Addition would be a clear indication of an topic of importance for LWVNC
• Visibility and credibility when talking to North Carolina General Assembly members; renewed interest in North Carolina
• Important aspect of LWVUS efforts: Making Democracy Work, Moonshot effort
• No need for study
• Momentum growing with likely passage in Minnesota, Michigan and Maine
• Bills introduced in at least 12 other states (Nevada, Pennsylvania, Arizona, Florida, Texas, Missouri, Mississippi, South Carolina, Wisconsin, Indiana, Ohio, Arkansas)
• North Carolina is one of the states targeted by the national National Popular Vote Interstate Compact organization; has lobbying presence in Raleigh
• Increased awareness that the Electoral College is a threat to democratic institutions
• Electoral College is a legacy of concessions to slave holding states
• The Electoral College gives undue influence to small states; not every vote is equal
• Wyoming population 576,851; 3 EC votes; 288,425 residents per EC vote
• California population 39,538,223; 54 EC votes; 737,745 residents per EC vote
• North Carolina population 10,439,388; 16 EC votes; 642,461 residents per EC vote

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Support for Direct Election of President Increasing

Pew Research Poll

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Endorsers of the National Popular Vote Effort

• American Civil Liberties Union
• Asian American Fund
• Brennan Center for Justice
• Common Cause
• Defenders of Wildlife Action Fund
• Demos
• Jewish Alliance for Law and Social Action
• League of Women Voters
• Mass Vote

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• NAACP
• National Black Caucus of State Legislatures
• National Institute for Latino Policy
• National Latino Congresso
• Progressive States
• Public Citizen
• Sierra Club
• US Public Interest Research Group
• Wisconsin Democracy Campaign

Specific Language

REPRESENTATIVE GOVERNMENT

Add a section following Campaign Finance –

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ELECTION OF THE PRESIDENT/VICE PRESIDENT

The League believes the direct popular vote method for electing the President and Vice President is essential to representative government and therefore supports:

Abolishment of the Electoral College by Constitutional Amendment

Use of the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact as an acceptable way to achieve the goal of direct popular vote for the election of the President until the Electoral College is abolished.

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Questions

How Do States Determine the National Winner for National Popular Vote?

“Prior to the time set by law for the meeting and voting by the presidential electors, the chief election official of each member state shall determine the number of votes for each presidential slate in each State of the United States and in the District of Columbia in which votes have been cast in a statewide popular election and shall add such votes together to produce a “national popular vote total” for each presidential slate.”

There Will Not Be Recount Chaos

• A recount would be less likely to be needed under the National Popular Vote plan than under current state-by-state winner-take-all system. �
• There have been five litigated state counts in the nation’s 57 presidential elections between 1789 and 2012 under the current state-by-state winner-take-all system. �
• This rate is dramatically higher than the historical 1-in-185 rate for elections in which there is a single statewide pool of votes and in which the winner is the candidate who receives the most popular votes. �

How Would National Popular Vote Handle a Tie Vote?

“In event of a tie for the national popular vote winner, the presidential elector certifying official of each member state shall certify the appointment of the elector slate nominated in association with the presidential slate receiving the largest number of popular votes within that official’s own state.”�

SCOTUS Ruling on Faithless Electors (7/6/2022)

• States have the power to require presidential electors to vote for their own party’s candidate for President.
• If states have a law [not all do] binding electors to their vote, or replacing people who do not cast ballots as they pledged to, it is constitutional for those electors to be replaced.
• Ruling doesn't require electors to be 'faithful‘” just says states have power to require electors be faithful.
• National Popular Vote law was not subject of cases.
• Decision does not affect operation of National Popular Vote law. Both current & National Popular Vote systems rely on political parties to vet & select presidential electors who will faithfully vote for party's nominee.
• National Popular Vote requires that electors casting their ballots are from the party that won the nationwide popular vote. Thus these electors would normally be happy and willing to cast their vote from that winning candidate.
• Reminder: NPV plan requires that electors casting their ballots are from