Democrats at every level have a lot to get done with the enormous mandate they got on Tuesday. At the state level β specifically in the states that now have Democratic trifectas β one of the most important is passing the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact.
The NPVIC is an end run around the anti-democratic Electoral College β a pledge that states will send their electoral votes to the winner of the popular vote, once states with a majority of electoral votes have signed on. As of now, 19 states with 222 electoral votes have adopted it, with Virginia having joined just this year. And Democrats just won trifectas in enough states to get past 270. Arizona, Michigan, Nevada, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin aren't part of the NPVIC, and together would get it to 283.
Twice in this century we've seen Republicans take the White House after getting fewer votes than their Democratic opponents. That should be a good enough reason to pass this. The will of the people should prevail, full stop.
The prospect of another popular-vote-losing Republican in the White House should also be a reason that speaks to Democrats in those states on partisan power grounds. If Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, for instance, has presidential ambitions, he should be pushing this. Shapiro, in fact, said this weekend that he is open to joining the NPVIC β but he should be more than just open to it.
But there's another reason bypassing the Electoral College would be good for democracy. Right now, presidential candidates chase votes in a handful of battleground states. Democrats are taking New York and California and Illinois for granted. Republicans are taking Texas and Mississippi and, increasingly, Florida for granted. A presidential candidate should not care less about the vote of someone from Texas or California than they do about the vote of someone from Arizona or Michigan. That everyone's vote should be worth the same amount is also a question of democracy, albeit one violated by the Senate as well as the Electoral College.
(Granted, the list of states with new Democratic trifectas overlaps a great deal with the list of states that presidential candidates from both parties campaign heavily in, so maybe the injustice of their votes having outsize influence is less of a problem for Arizona or Michigan.)
Republicans could try to block this in the courts. They could demand congressional assent. They could do all sorts of things. But that's no reason for Democrats not to do the right thing β something that, in this case, is good for both the Democratic Party and for democracy itself. Everyone's vote should count the same, whether they live in Arkansas, Massachusetts, or Nevada.
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