National Popular Vote Interstate Compact

National Popular Vote Interstate Compact
Status as of April 2024:
0
270
538

Each square in the cartogram represents one electoral vote.

  •   Enacted – 209 EVs (38.8% of Electoral College)
  •   Pending – 50 EVs (9.3%)
  •   Neither enacted nor pending – 279 EVs (51.9%)[1]
  • | Threshold for activation – 270 EVs (50% plus one)
DraftedJanuary 2006
EffectiveNot in effect
ConditionAdoption by states (and D.C.) whose electoral votes comprise a majority in the Electoral College. The agreement is binding only where adopted.
Signatories
List
Full text
Agreement Among the States to Elect the President by National Popular Vote at Wikisource

The National Popular Vote Interstate Compact (NPVIC) is an agreement among a group of U.S. states and the District of Columbia to award all their electoral votes to whichever presidential ticket wins the overall popular vote in the 50 states and the District of Columbia. The compact is designed to ensure that the candidate who receives the most votes nationwide is elected president, and it would come into effect only when it would guarantee that outcome.[2][3][4]

Introduced in 2006, as of April 2024, it has been adopted by seventeen states and the District of Columbia. These jurisdictions have 209 electoral votes, which is 39% of the Electoral College and 77% of the 270 votes needed to give the compact legal force.

Certain legal questions may affect implementation of the compact. Some legal observers believe states have plenary power to appoint electors as prescribed by the compact; others believe that the compact will require congressional consent under the Constitution's Compact Clause or that the presidential election process cannot be altered except by a constitutional amendment.

  1. ^ Progress in the States Archived May 2, 2019, at the Wayback Machine, National Popular Vote.
  2. ^ "National Popular Vote". Retrieved July 22, 2024.
  3. ^ "National Popular Vote". National Conference of State Legislatures. NCSL. March 11, 2015. Archived from the original on December 17, 2015. Retrieved November 9, 2015.
  4. ^ Brody, Michael (February 17, 2013). "Circumventing the Electoral College: Why the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact Survives Constitutional Scrutiny Under the Compact Clause". Legislation and Policy Brief. 5 (1). Washington College of Law Journals & Law Reviews at Digital Commons @ American University Washington College of Law: 33, 35. Archived from the original on March 27, 2015. Retrieved September 11, 2014.