Tipsheet

The Electoral College System Is About To Take Another Hit Out West

Well, the Nevada State Senate has decided to go the way of Delaware, Colorado, and a dozen other states in allocating its electoral votes to whoever wins the national popular vote. The bill now heads to Democratic Gov. Steve Sisolak’s desk for signature. It will make Nevada the 15th state to join this movement (via The Hill):

The Nevada Senate passed a bill that would give the state’s Electoral College votes to the winner of the presidential election's national popular vote, sending the legislation to the desk of Gov. Steve Sisolak (D).

The state Senate passed the measure on a 12-8 vote on Tuesday, CNN reported.

If Sisolak signs the measure into law, Nevada would become the latest state to join the National Popular Vote interstate compact, an agreement among a number of states to give their Electoral College votes to whichever presidential candidate wins the popular vote.

[…]

The total is currently at 189, and Nevada’s six electoral votes would boost the number to 195…

We’re getting awfully close to 270, folks. Yet, there are some Republicans who support this National Popular Vote Interstate Compact. The reason for the change is three-fold for this crowd on the Right. First, the ever-increasing chances that Florida becomes a blue state, which is on hold given the results of the 2016 and 2018 elections. The Florida GOP has done some good work in winning key races the past few cycles. Still, if Florida becomes as reliably blue as California, the Democrats have a lock on the Electoral College. Second, is to lessen the power of swing states and reduce the flow of bad policies engineered to win these states. No Child Left Behind was designed to win over Volvo-driving soccer moms in Hamilton County, Ohio. Third, to energize hundreds of thousands of Republican voters in blue states, who usually sit home because they think their vote doesn’t count. With no swing states to please causing messaging to be moderated or diluted, the GOP can run on freedom, less government, less regulation, and low taxes. The Democrats can run on abolishing ICE, the Green New Deal, job-killing economic policies, and political correctness. I still think we’d win that argument. It’s certainly a topic worth debating, which is where I am with all of this, though I lean toward keeping the system where it is simply because I think it’s done a fine job in electing our leaders. Sour grapes over the 2016 race is a bad, bad reason to alter whole institutions.