The National Popular Vote Interstate Compact (NPVIC) is an agreement among various states and the District of Columbia to replace their current rules regarding the apportionment of presidential electors with rules guaranteeing the election of the candidate with the most popular votes in the national election. The agreement will not go into effect until the current participants have been joined by enough more states to give them an absolute majority in the Electoral College. In the ensuing presidential election, those states would award all their electoral votes to the national popular vote winner, who would therefore become President by winning more than half of the electoral votes. Until the conditions of the compact are met, all states will continue to award their electoral votes in the current manner.
As of April 2012, the compact has been joined by eight states and the District of Columbia (see map). Their 132 combined electoral votes amount to 24.5% of the Electoral College, and 49% of the 270 votes needed for the compact to go into effect.
The compact is based on Article II, Section 1 of the U.S. Constitution, which gives each state legislature the right to decide how to appoint its own electors. States have chosen various methods of allocation over the years, with regular changes in the nation's early decades. Today, all but two states (Maine and Nebraska) award all their electoral votes to the candidate with the most popular votes statewide.
Read more about National Popular Vote Interstate Compact: Details of The Compact Law, Motivation Behind The Compact, Debate, History, See Also
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