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Call to Action: Mich. House moves to vote TODAY on National Popular Vote

STOP National Popular Vote.

MI House Reps will be voting on

 Diabolical National Popular Vote bills.

 

Tell House Reps to Vote NO! 

Tell the Election Committee to vote NO!


By PIME Contributors | November 12, 2024


Rachelle Smit, Michigan House Speaker Pro Tempore, is sounding the alarm. The lame duck MI legislature is trying to push Michigan to join the National Popular Vote Compact. Rep. Smit said, "Now they are saying it will be on tomorrow’s agenda" and the only hope is "if three Dems don't show up."  


PIME is asking its readers to call their representatives. Say NO to NPV. 


NPV is like “two wolves and a sheep voting on what’s for dinner,” said Patrice Johnson, chair of Pure Integrity Michigan Elections (PIME) as she urged supporters to contact their legislators, “Right now. Today.” She added. “Say no to National Popular Vote." Citing the Great Lakes as an example, she said, "What if the Southwest wanted (as it does) Michigan’s water? Who’s a candidate going to listen to, our state with a population of about 10 million, or a metro area like the Los Angeles area that dwarfs us with its population of 12.87 million?”

 

NPV is on the House Session calendar (https://legislature.mi.gov/documents/2023-2024/Calendar/House/pdf/2024-HC-11-12-076.pdf). If passed, the state Senate is likely to pass it as well, and Governor Gretchen Whitmer would be only to happy to sign it into law. 



The National Popular Vote (NPV) initiative is creating waves across the country with its call for a dramatic change to the presidential election process. The rallying cry of “one person, one vote” has captured the attention of many Americans. But this compact undermines the core principles on which the United States was founded and threatens to diminish the voices of people in smaller states. 

 

“The U.S. was founded as a collection of sovereign states,” said Trent England, director of Save Our States, an organization opposing the NPV. “Our Constitution was carefully crafted to protect the interests of both small and large states, and the Electoral College is central to that protection.” 


If NPV is enacted, Johnson said, "Michigan would become, literally, fly-over country for federal politicians. Goodbye swing state status. Goodbye candidate visits."


The NPV is essentially a compact between participating states to allocate their electoral votes to the candidate who wins the national popular vote, even if a different candidate wins in that state. This compact will only go into effect once states with a cumulative 270 electoral votes—the threshold to win the presidency—join the agreement. NPV was first introduced in 2006 and has been adopted by 17 states and the District of Columbia as of April this year. These jurisdictions have 209 electoral votes, which is 39% of the Electoral College and 77% of the 270 votes needed to give the compact legal force.  


Michigan’s 15 electoral votes would put NPV at 224, or nearly 83% of the votes it needs to take effect. 

 

Proponents argue that the NPV makes the election process more democratic by aligning electoral votes with the national will of the people. As John Koza, the founder of the National Popular Vote organization, states, “A national popular vote would make every vote equal, giving all Americans a say in choosing the president.”


Opponents counter that this measure, while seemingly democratic, fundamentally shifts the balance of power within the United States. They emphasize that the United States is not a pure democracy but rather a democratic republic composed of independent states.


The Constitution ensures each state has a voice through its structure of government, which includes equal representation in the Senate (two senators per state) and a proportional system based on population in the House of Representatives. The Electoral College was similarly designed to balance the influence of both populous and less-populated states in presidential elections. 


The argument goes back to the founding of the United States, when smaller states sought to prevent being overshadowed by larger states. At that time, as James Madison famously explained, the need was for a system that could protect the rights of both small and large states. This balance was achieved through the creation of a bicameral legislature: the House of Representatives, based on population, and the Senate, in which each state has equal representation. The Electoral College was designed to reflect this balance, with states granted electors based on their congressional representation—two votes for each senator and additional votes proportional to the number of representatives. 


NPV disrupts this carefully established balance by making state boundaries irrelevant in presidential elections. The Founders’ design of the Electoral College was rooted in the belief that states, not just individual voters, should play a role in choosing the president.  


“To bypass the Electoral College is to fundamentally change the nature of our union,” says Hans von Spakovsky, a senior legal fellow at the Heritage Foundation. “This isn’t just about fairness—it’s about maintaining the balance of power among the states that was integral to forming our country.”  


Johnson's argument that NPV is like “two wolves and a sheep voting on what’s for dinner” highlights the concern that the majority can trample the rights of the minority. The United States was designed to guard against such outcomes by establishing a republic in which both majority and minority interests are considered in governance. 


In short, while NPV's supporters argue it is a step toward true democracy, opponents see it as a threat to the federal balance of power that has maintained the voice and influence of smaller states for centuries. For them, this is not just an argument over electoral logistics but a battle for the soul of American federalism.

 

“The ancient Greeks and our Founding Fathers said a true democracy boils down mobocracy. That is what this battle is all about,” Johnson said. 

 

Call your representatives ASAP.  


 

NPV would be disastrous for Michigan in a number of ways.

First, it would violate the sovereignty of the individual states. At the time of the nation’s founding, the signatories of the U.S. Constitution knew that no state legislatures would sign their rights away in order to blend into a giant conglomeration. (See U.S. Constitution and The Federalist Papers.) Today, several large urban populations would drown out the voices of entire states, including Michigan.


The metropolitan area of Los Angeles alone has a population of 12.87 million, compared to Michigan’s population of just over 10 million.


Stop NPV in its tracks

To prevent this diminishment of your vote, let your elected officials know that you want them to vote NO on NPV. Vote NO on HB 4156. Call them. Write them. Visit them.


Join Michigan Fair Elections (MFE) for updates on NPV and other matters that impact the ability for you to cast your vote in a fair and honest election.


Click here to subscribe. Click here to volunteer.




 

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The views and opinions expressed in this commentary are those of the authors and do not reflect the official position of the Pure Integrity Michigan Elections. Every article written by a PIME author is generated by the author or editor alone. However, links or images embedded within the article, may have been generated by artificial intelligence.


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