17 Reasons Why the National Popular Vote Initiative Is Likely to Fail

By William Josephson 

Jerry H. Goldfeder, in his December 17, 2018 letter, says it would be “a creative measure to have the winner of the popular vote actually be elected president.”

National Popular Vote envisages a compact, an agreement, among the states to cast their elector ballots for the national popular vote winner, regardless of how the people of their respective states voted.  It would take effect when states with a majority of elector votes join NPV, 270 including the District of Columbia’s three elector votes.

There are at least 17 reasons why NPV is unlikely to work.

1. Only roughly half the states purport to bind electors to vote in accordance with their own state’s popular vote. A state law that purports to bind its electors to vote even in accordance with its own popular vote, let alone the nation’s, may be unconstitutional under Ray v. Blair.
2. Could an NPV state elector force a colleague to vote in accordance with NPV? No elector voting enforcement mechanism is provided by NPV.
3. Could an NPV state sue a withdrawing NPV state or its electors to vote in accordance with NPV? Where?  When?  How quickly?

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