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Virginia joins a national effort to ensure only popular vote winners become president (www.npr.org)
submitted 6 months ago by to c/politics@sh.itjust.works
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With Virginia, the total number of states signed on to the interstate compact is now 18, plus the District of Columbia, for a total of 222 electoral votes.

The compact doesn't go into effect, though, until there are enough states signed up to reach the required 270 electoral votes to elect a president.

"This [effort] started 20 years ago and it's been slow and steady … constant forward momentum across these 20 years," said Alyssa Cass, a strategist for the National Popular Vote Project and a Democratic consultant. "Bills have been introduced in almost every state, most passed in a bipartisan way. This is on the 5-yard line of making this a reality."

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[–] 3 points 6 months ago*

Different states have different laws, but many have faithless elector protections.

A faithless elector is someone who, after being chosen for the electoral college, does not vote for the candidate that everyone expected. Since states have a wide latitude to select or reject electoral college representatives, they can pas laws saying "If you change your vote, we will cancel your vote and replace you". I would expect that this popular vote compact requires such protection.

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