Op-Ed Opposing the Opinion Piece by paid NPV Lobbyist

US Senator Elizabeth Warren, D-MA, supports the National Popular Vote scheme and any other efforts that will end the Electoral College.

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. 
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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

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