My Response - Maine Should Not Join the National Popular Vote!

MAINE
Editor
Portland Press-Herald
Portland, ME

Responding to News Article 'House Gives Initial Apprioval to National Popular Vote Bill'
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Editor,
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National Popular Vote backers whine about winner-take-all elections, then push to
dismantle Maine’s highly respected alternative process. Good for Rep. Boyer to
emphasize that Maine’s tiny population enjoys outsized influence (0.4% to 0.75%) of the
Electoral College vote.

Recent Supreme Court rulings emphasize state sovereignty regarding elections. Sadly,
Maine House democrats (minus Hasenfus, Mastraccio and Montell) pushed in the
opposite direction and for congressional district #1’s influence to disappear.

Reporter Randy Billings explains that under national popular vote, Mainers would end
up supporting the national winner “even if that doesn’t reflect the state’s results.” But
the idea that this doesn’t “eliminate the electoral college process” is contradicted by bill
language in at least some states, that the NPVIC would terminate “if the Electoral
College is ever eliminated.”

Sponsor Bell bemoans “sitting up late at night” as election results come in. Mainers
should challenge him to explain peoples’ reactions when announced results are always
tied up in court, not by a candidate, but by some or all of the 35 states that have
consistently voted “NO” to giving up their sovereignty.

Discard the idea that just one or two former Presidents “lost the popular vote.” In 1996
Bill Clinton got a smaller percentage of the popular vote (43%) than Donald Trump did in
2015 (46%). The Electoral College delivered both men to the Oval Office because they
were elected by the states. Do you remember any bellyaching over Bill Clinton? Neither
do I.

​See List of U.S. Presidential Elections by Popular Vote, Wikipedia

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Roberta Schlechter
NW Regional volunteer for Michigan-based KEEP OUR 50 STATES
Portland, OR