House rejects move for Maine to bypass Electoral College

[Right_in_Virginia]

House rejects move for Maine to bypass Electoral College
Press Herald, May 30, 2019

AUGUSTA — The Maine House rejected a bill Thursday that would have Maine join a compact of states pledging to award their Electoral College votes to the winner of the national popular vote during presidential elections.

The 76-66 vote against the measure comes two weeks after the state Senate agreed to add Maine to a growing number of states aiming to elect presidents by popular vote.

The Senate voted 19-16 to have Maine join an interstate compact in which participating states agree to award their Electoral College votes to the presidential candidate who receives the most votes nationwide.

[...]

Popular vote supporters say the time has come to replace an Electoral College system that was created at a time when slavery was legal and only a select group of white males was given the right to vote in presidential elections.

But opponents said Maine would lose its voice in a popular vote system and that Maine’s system of awarding Electoral College votes, unusual among states, goes even further to to protect the rights of the minority.

Rep. John Andrews, R-Paris, said the bill was the most dangerous of the lawmaking session as it sought to fundamentally change the federal government.

“If a candidate had run on destroying the Electoral College and giving Maine’s electoral votes to New York City, they would have been laughed off the campaign trail and most certainly would not have been elected,” Andrews said.


More:  https://www.pressherald.com/2019/05/30/maine-house-rejects-move-to-change-electoral-college-system/

[Fishrrman]

First Nevada rejecting NPV (as reported in another thread), and now Maine.

Could even the smaller -blue- states be coming to their senses about this?

Perhaps NPV has "reached its high point", and will now fade (as the push for the equal rights amendment "faded" decades ago)...