Don’t write off angry liberals just yet: The fight for the Electoral College is just starting
By: Jen Kuznicki | December 26, 2016
In a couple of gloating pieces here and there, some in conservative media have laughed at and mocked Harvard professor Larry Lessig after reports on the Electoral College vote on Monday proved that the electors did not turn faithless as Lessig wished them to. If the gloaters really want to be helpful and truly revere the Constitution’s Electoral College genius, they had better realize that this war on the Electoral College is just ramping up, and must come to the defense of the Constitution at every turn.
Lessig and his ilk are not done. In an opinion piece in the New Yorker, a columnist urges upset liberals to “Support Electoral College Reform” by organizing to urge states to enter into the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact (NPVC). The compact has been enacted into law in eleven states that constitute 165 of the 270 Electoral votes a candidate needs to win the presidency. Compact proponents claim that as soon as states that collectively represent 105 more Electoral votes enter into the Compact, it can be used in the next presidential election, effectively circumventing the Electoral College. Each state in the compact would, instead of awarding their Electoral College votes to the winner of their state popular vote, agree to award their state’s electors to the national winner of the popular vote. Proponents claim the NPVC will survive the compact clause of the constitution in Article I Section 10, which says that without the approval of Congress, states cannot enter into compacts or agreements in other states. They believe it will either be labeled in court proceedings as something other than a compact, or, that Congress might well approve the compact, citing popularity across the board that the Electoral College give way to a popular vote.
- See more at:
https://www.conservativereview.com/commentary/2016/12/dont-write-off-angry-liberals-just-yet-the-fight-for-the-electoral-college-is-just-starting#sthash.3lh6bm4e.dpuf
