Campaign Action
In another step toward electing presidents by popular vote, Oregon’s legislature has passed a new bill that adds the state’s seven Electoral College votes to the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact. This agreement would assign each member state's electoral votes to the winner of the nationwide popular vote once states representing a majority of 270 electoral votes have joined. The bill now goes to Democratic Gov. Kate Brown, who has said she supports the proposal. Once she signs it, the compact’s members will collectively account for 196 electoral votes.
As shown on the map above (where each state is sized according to its electoral vote), there's a challenging but plausible path for the compact to reach 270 votes by the 2024 presidential election. Because Republicans have consistently opposed the concept of majority rule, Democrats would need to win control of governorships and legislatures in a number of states over the next few years in order for those states to enter the compact.
On the target list are Arizona, Michigan, Minnesota, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, and Virginia. If these states turn blue by 2022 and join the compact, that would put the compact over the top—and would, at long last, see the U.S. join with almost every other presidential democracy to ensure that its leader is the person who wins the most votes.