What follows is mostly fantasy. I imagine myself called to testify before that completely skewed Michigan House Committee on Elections--and I’m told I have 30 seconds to give my testimony. So here goes.

My 30-Second 'Elevator Speech' that Defends our Electoral College
​
“Respectfully, Madam Chair, God is God, and we are not. The Electoral College is so elegantly embedded in the fabric of America’s election infrastructure, which is the exclusive purview of the sovereign states… ALL the sovereign states equally ... that sooner or later, this National Popular Vote scheme, which is too cute by half, must experience either a total meltdown or death by 1,000 papercuts, and then assume its rightful place on the Ash Heap of History.”

MICHIGAN

​Dear Representative Kunse,

Before you vote for HB 4156-NPVIC--putting control of your presidential electors into the hands of voters elsewhere... take a look at your own state constitution.
​
Roberta Schlechter, for KEEP OUR 50 STATES
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ARTICLE II Elections
§ 1 Qualifications of electors; residence.
Sec. 1. Every citizen of the United States who has attained the age of 18 years, who has resided in this state six months, and who meets the requirements of local residence provided by law, shall be an elector and qualified to vote in any election except as otherwise provided in this constitution. The legislature shall define residence for voting purposes.

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Reply from Rep. Tom Kunse, R-100th District

7/18/2023

Hello!
 
Thank you for taking the time to contact my office regarding the Electoral College. I am dedicated to protecting election integrity in Michigan and across the nation.
 
I have been researching and carefully considering my stance because this is not a small matter. I have decided against supporting the National Popular Vote.
 
Please do not hesitate to reach out to my office with questions or concerns.
 
 
Yours in Lansing,
 
Tom Kunse
State Representative
Michigan’s 100th House District

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My note of appreciation to Rep. Kunse
7/18/2023

Dear Rep. Kunse:
I am elated to learn that you will support continuation of the Electoral College, and the best interests of your constituents. Thank you,

Respectfully
Roberta Schlechter 

MINNESOTA

Editor,

I’d like to respond to Community Voices contributor Beth Anderson’s letter congratulating Minnesota on giving away the control of their Electoral Votes to NON-Minnesotans (“Minnesota Joins National Popular Vote Compact” July 15, 2023)*.

First, what is it that really builds “community”? Is it raw numbers? Under the Electoral College system, the successful presidential candidate builds support from multiple groupings of states and regions. People self-identify by neighborhood values and constituencies. We “vote” with our feet and pocketbooks and dreams for our children.

While America conducts all elections via a “one-person/one vote” process—with every state conducting two popular elections each cycle--America is not a pure democracy; we don’t have a “peoples’ president.” Rather, we are a Constitutional Republic wrapped around a federation of sovereign states (US Constitution, Article IV, and Section 4: “The United States shall guarantee to every State in this Union a Republican Form of Government...” POTUS stands for "President of the United STATES," i.e., the Executive of the federation.

Disclaimers are Needed

Whenever there is mention of presidents being elected who “did not win the popular vote,” it needs to come with a disclaimer: No American president has ever been elected by popular vote. Election by Electoral College is not an “inversion.” Rather, it is exclusively built into the American electoral infrastructure.

As for your neighbor, North Dakota; does it have less right to exist as a state than Minnesota? Are their 3 electors less than Minnesota’s 10? So how is a Minnesota voter disadvantaged by the 3 electoral votes of its neighbor, or any other sparsely populated state? (By the way, North Dakota’s legislature has repeatedly said No to the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact.) And could the average New Yorker even find the City of Savage on a map?

But now that Minnesota legislators have pulled the state into the Compact, voters need to learn about the potential downside. If the Compact ever takes effect (having survived Constitutional challenges--spoiler alert), Minnesota voters may get to watch the candidate they rejected, win the national vote and then swallow up Minnesota’s 10 electoral votes. Does that sound like a way to build “community”?

State Lines Matter

Finally, Anderson speaks of “blurring the lines” between states as being a good thing. But state “lines” matter. They define everything about how/where we live our lives: neighborhoods, taxes, and education standards, just to name a few. How many North Dakotans would trade places with their deep blue neighbors? A few might look longingly in your direction (and vice versa) on election night. If desire and opportunity are strong enough, people can and do relocate. California used to be red and Texas used to be blue.

Regardless, every election the Electoral College strengthens the walls around each state and keeps election irregularities in one state from polluting the process in any other.

Speaking of irregularities ... allowing Minnesota’s electoral votes to be controlled by the actions of out-of-state voters probably runs afoul of Article VII of your own state Constitution.

Roberta Schlechter  - NW Region Director & Volunteer Keep Our 50 States (Oregon).  She has advocated against the National Popular Vote since 2008.


Downloads for reprinting this article are available at our Resources/Handouts page.

GEORGIA

This is my response to the opinion column placed by long-time paid National Popular Vote Compact salesman and lobbyist Saul Anuzis.  His article appeared in The Georgia Virtue, "NPV is a Win for Conservatives ...", in Georgia in June 2023.  
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Op-Ed Response:
 
“...This agreement shall terminate if the electoral college is abolished...”
 
So states the legislation Saul Anuzis (June 16 guest columnist) would like us all to embrace, the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact, or NPVIC. When I first heard of the Compact about 15 years ago, I approached it with the perspective of a 3-term legislative staffer in Oregon. I’ve steadily followed the legislation and lobbied against it, on my own nickel, individually and as a member of grassroots organizations.

What is the NPVIC and How does it Work?
 
Here’s how NPV is designed to work. The “Compact” would take effect if enough states join to equal 270 electoral votes, the number needed to elect a President. If that happens, and the Georgia legislature signs on as a Compact state, the national vote winner would take command of Georgia’s presidential electors, literally overriding the state general election vote. 
 
From the bill text: ARTICLE III - MANNER OF APPOINTING PRESIDENTIAL ELECTORS IN MEMBER STATES: “... The chief election official of each member state shall designate the presidential slate with the largest national popular vote total as the "national popular vote winner." Continuing: “...the presidential candidate on the presidential slate that has been designated as the national popular vote winner shall have the power to nominate the presidential electors for that state...”

For context, every Compact state to date is a “trifecta Blue state” where Democrats control the state house and both legislative chambers. And please dismiss suggestions of “bipartisan” support. Every Red states across the country has repeatedly voted “No.” Some have amended their state constitutions to protect the Electoral College system. Since 2007, a total of 1,390 Democrat legislators have voted for NPV, along with a grand total of 115 Republicans, 102 of them in the blue states of Illinois and New York. 

The NPVIC automatically ends when the Electoral College is Abolished. Wait-WHAT?!!

So let’s consider the Electoral College, whose abolishment alone would bring this scheme to an end. It is woven within a Constitutionally protected election infrastructure. Among other things, it builds a protective wall around every state, so that election irregularities in any state cannot spill over and pollute the process in any other state. 
 
I recognize that Georgia’s 2020 vote count got pretty unpleasant. But give me just a moment. Five neighboring states touch Georgia’s borders. Yet none of them were drawn into the 2020 controversy, which Georgia by itself resolved. But if Georgia joins the Compact, your vote count would always be diluted by votes spilling from California to New York. How many? In 2020 the current Compact states cast 59.8 million votes, all on the blue side. And regardless of Georgia’s preferences in any given election, it would always be this way. 
​
NPV's False Claim of "Making Every Voter Equal"
 
To that point, NPV makes the claim that under the Compact “every vote is of equal value in our process.”  The question is, equal to what? Would you rather a Georgia voter’s choice for President be 1 in 4.997 million, as it was in 2020, or 1 in the national tally of 158 million? The question becomes, how NPV would make YOUR vote “more equal” in ANY way that matters to Georgia? 
 
Finally please consider this NPV bill language: “Sec. 4. When the agreement among the states to elect the President by national popular vote governs the appointment of presidential electors, the provisions of the agreement take precedence over any conflicting law of this state.” In one gulp NPV seeks to swallow up any and all related state laws and run headlong into your own state Constitution (Article 2, Section 1).

No untested innovation should command such a power grab.
 
Roberta Schlechter
Portland, OR