A national popular vote would result in campaign policies that support the majority of Americans nationwide.
Most of America Left Out of 2016 Election
Many Voted, Yet Few Votes Made a Difference in 2016
In future elections, we will likely see even greater disconnects between margins of victory in the popular vote and electoral margins of victory after all state electors are tallied.
Madison's Confidence in Voters
The Voting Rights Act Turns 53
53 years ago America passed the landmark Voting Rights Act. We still have a long way to go to make every vote count.
Why Were Most Voters Left Out of the 2012 and 2016 Presidential Elections?
Only in the 21st century did densification and polarization produce a situation in which each of the two major parties' candidates chose not to compete in a large number of states conceded to the rival.
THE "WINNER-TAKE-ALL" RULE ADOPTED BY 48 STATES WEAKENS VOTES
A state may not advantage its citizens as against citizens of other states as a general rule. For example, it cannot give its citizens greater access to public forums for assembly.
The Constitution gives citizens in small states more electors per voter than citizens in large states. But is it right for a state to exacerbate that extra power by adopting a winner-take-all rule for choosing electors? Such a rule enables voters composing a mere plurality to name all the states’ electors in the Electoral College.
The right to assemble includes the right to move to a state that upholds and supports the political and policy preferences of any citizen. For example, a citizen may choose to live with others who are willing to pay higher taxes in return for more funding for public schools, public transportation, or other public benefits. However, by not granting citizens the right to vote with equal weight for president, a state inhibits the right to assemble with like-minded people in a community.
To illustrate, in 2016, under the current system, a citizen who prefers Trump over Clinton lost weight in voting by moving from Texas to California, or a Clinton-preferring citizen lost weight in voting by moving from California to Texas. This loss of equal weight is not a result of any operation of the Constitution’s Electoral College system: it occurs because states adopt a winner-take-all-rule instead of pledging their electors to choose the winner of the national popular vote or, as second order solution, allocating their electors proportionally like Nebraska and Maine.
The Right to Vote For President
The Constitution does not permits states to deny citizens the right to vote directly or indirectly for President.
Campaigning Equals Governing
The Consent of the Governed
Losing Trust In Government
Would it surprise you to learn that a large majority of Americans affirmatively agree that they do not want to see their local hospitals destroyed by heavy rainstorms? I mean, let’s hope not. Fine, the question is silly but the problem isn’t: it’s raining more than it used to.