By State Rep. Ann Bollin, R-Brighton Township
A conversation is once again brewing that could fundamentally alter the way the president of the United States has been elected since our nation’s founding.
In Michigan, Democrat legislators are pushing forward with legislation, House Bill 4156, that would enter our state into the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact.
If Michigan decides to enter the compact, and legislation is adopted by enough other states agreeing to do the same, this effort will disenfranchise Michigan voters by forcing our electoral votes to whichever presidential candidate earns the most votes nationally, not the most votes in the state of Michigan.
That’s right. If Candidate A wins the popular vote nationwide, ALL of Michigan’s electoral votes would be given to Candidate A – even if Michigan voters supported Candidate B by a wide margin. This would drown out the voices of both our urban cities and rural farming communities.
So far, 15 states and the District of Columbia have adopted National Popular Vote legislation. With 195 electoral votes in hand, the backers of this questionable movement to bypass the U.S. Constitution only need an additional 75 votes to reach the 270-vote presidential threshold. This is a dangerous threat to our republic that must be stopped.
Our Founding Fathers created the Electoral College to ensure the interests of all states and regions are considered when electing the president – not just big cities and population centers like New York and California. Our largest cities in Michigan are much smaller than those in other states.
The system they developed – the one our country has used for more than 230 years – gives smaller states say in the election, preventing larger states from dominating the process. This ensures the president represents a broad range of interests and has a motive to govern the entire country, not just the most populous areas.
The Electoral College incentivizes presidential candidates to campaign in a diverse range of states, not just those with the highest population centers. Candidates must appeal to voters across the country and address a variety of issues that are important to different regions. Michigan is the epicenter of the Midwest and our voices – urban, suburban and rural – should be heard. The current system prevents the neglect of certain areas in favor of others.
The National Popular Vote Interstate Compact threatens to upend this delicate balance and throw presidential elections into disarray. It will likely require states to prematurely accept the election results other states are reporting, even if those results are known to be incomplete due to other problematic policies like priority voting or ranked-choice voting.
In the event of a very close election, National Popular Vote would require a full recount in every state – a monumental task that would be next-to-impossible, given the fact that every state has different standards on when and how it conducts recounts. Without a governing body or other procedures in place to resolve differences, National Popular Vote member states would have no choice but to turn to the courts to settle disputes. We do not want to relive the hanging chad debacle of 2000 or the post-election trauma of 2020.
The National Popular Vote movement is bad for Michigan and bad for America. It’s unfair to voters outside of large population centers, bucks the Constitution, and serves to further erode confidence in our elections. Michigan legislators should soundly reject this misguided proposal.
State Rep. Ann Bollin represents portions of Livingston and western Oakland counties in the Michigan House. She previously served for 16 years as Brighton Township Clerk.
But it clearly doesn’t: both Biden and Trump visited “battleground” states like Pennsylvania and Arizona many times in the last election. In contrast, when is the last time a presidential candidate visited Oklahoma, Delaware, Montana, or Washington? Why did the debates spend so much time discussing fracking, which mostly concerns Pennsylvanians, but said nothing about California, Oregon, and Washington being on fire at the time?
The Electoral College disincentivizes campaigning in “safe” states. Rather, it concentrates the election in those states that happen to have a roughly even split between Democrats and Republicans that year.
Matt,
You’ve got it right.
Thanks for the good post.
Bad argument. Inside out, upside down, and backwards.
States don’t vote or have an interest in the outcome of an election, voters do. It’s our current system that disenfranchises voters, blue state conservatives AND red state liberals alike, all while forcing candidates to focus on just a handful of swing states. National popular vote makes every voter count equally, no matter where they live. Candidates are incentivized to run on popular platforms and target every persuadable voter.
Bollin knows that Republican priorities are unpopular statewide and nationally, and that independent voters won’t be persuaded by the election conspiracies and bigotry that has come to define the modern GOP. She seeks to cling to power through a broken system of anti democratic gerrymandering. This is the twisted logic of a political party whose goal has been to entrench it’s own power.
But power is NOT an end unto itself. It’s time for Republicans to accept election outcomes, stop trying to disenfranchise people who disagree, and return to persuasion. If that doesn’t work then tough! It’s your responsibility to come up with better ideas and better represent the voters.
Bad argument. Inside out, upside down, and backwards.
States don’t vote or have an interest in the outcome of an election, voters do. It’s our current system that disenfranchises voters, blue state conservatives AND red state liberals alike, all while forcing candidates to focus on just a handful of swing states. National popular vote makes every voter count equally, no matter where they live. Candidates are incentivized to run on popular platforms and target every persuadable voter.
Bollin knows that Republican priorities are unpopular statewide and nationally, and that independent voters won’t be persuaded by the election conspiracies and bigotry that has come to define the modern GOP. She seeks to cling to power through a broken system of anti democratic gerrymandering. These are the twisted arguments from a political party whose goal has been to entrench it’s own power for power’s sake.
But power is NOT an end unto itself. It’s time for Republicans to accept election outcomes and go back to trying to persuade voters rather than disenfranchise anyone who doesn’t agree. If that doesn’t work then tough! Come up with some better ideas that better represent us voters.