Virginia state House just voted to join the National Popular Vote Compact for the Electoral College

On Tuesday, state House Democrats passed a bill that would add Virginia’s 13 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. If the Democratic-run state Senate passes the bill and Democratic Gov. Ralph Northam signs it, compact members would account for 209 electoral votes, just 61 shy of a majority.

As shown on the map above where each state is sized according to its electoral vote (see here for a larger version), 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, along with convincing their party's lawmakers to pass the plan.

On the target list are Arizona, Michigan, Minnesota, New Hampshire, North Carolina, and Pennsylvania. If most of these states turn blue by 2022 and join the compact, that would put it over the top—and would, at long last, see the U.S. join with practically every other presidential democracy to ensure that its leader is the person who wins the most votes.