Join Robert Reich: End the Electoral College!

Former Labor Secretary Robert Reich here. One of the most basic principles of democracy is that the candidate who gets the most votes wins.

Except, of course, when it comes to the President of the United States.

Five U.S. Presidents have been elected while losing the popular vote – thanks to the current undemocratic Electoral College system. And because of population shifts in recent decades, it’s a virtual certainty that it will happen again.

But we have a tremendous opportunity to take a big step toward ending the broken Electoral College system through the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact.

The National Popular Vote Interstate Compact is a legal agreement among the states to award their electoral votes to the winner of the national popular vote. Once enough states join the compact to add up to 270 electoral votes, the current Electoral College system gets sent to the dustbin of history.

Earlier this year, Maine became the latest state to join, and we’re hearing that Michigan may sign on as well. That would bring us to 224 electoral votes, just 46 away from the 270 we need!

Add your name to support ending the undemocratic Electoral College system!

The last two presidents to win the White House without winning the popular vote were Republicans, but this is NOT a partisan issue. 

In fact, in 2004, John Kerry came within just a couple percentage points in Ohio of winning the presidency while losing by the nationwide popular vote by over 3 million votes.

The biggest problem about the current Electoral College system is that candidates can almost completely ignore the needs and concerns of roughly 80% of the country — that’s right, 80% of the country — because everyone knows that any close election will be decided by a handful of battleground states.

So unless you live in Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Michigan, Georgia, Arizona, or maybe one or two other states, your chances of seeing a presidential candidate campaign in your state is next to zero.

But every state that joins brings us closer — and if we can add Michigan’s 15 electoral votes to the total number committed to the agreement, we will be just one big push from ending the current Electoral College system forever. 

Please add your name now!