I agree this won’t be easy. Legal challenges, political backlash, and states reluctant to surrender their influence are real obstacles.
But I see this as a civil rights struggle.
Slavery shaped the Electoral College through the Three-Fifths Compromise. That compromise is gone, but the institution remains. It allowed Trump to win in 2016 despite losing the popular vote.
The Civil Rights Act of 1964 and Voting Rights Act of 1965 used existing constitutional authority to dismantle discriminatory barriers without new amendments.
The National Popular Vote Compact takes a similar legislative approach: once participating states control 270 electoral votes, they award them to the national popular-vote winner.
Now consider the historic governors just elected: Keisha Lance Bottoms, America’s first Black woman governor; David Crowley and Aaron Ford, the first Black governors of Wisconsin and Nevada; and Deb Haaland, the first Native American woman governor.
Communities historically excluded from political power now have leaders positioned to change how presidential power is awarded.
Crowley and Ford, working with their legislatures, could help lead that change.
The inversion: Leaders from historically excluded communities could use the states’ own constitutional authority to prevent an Electoral College shaped by slavery from overruling the national popular vote.
I agree this won’t be easy. Legal challenges, political backlash, and states reluctant to surrender their influence are real obstacles.
But I see this as a civil rights struggle.
Slavery shaped the Electoral College through the Three-Fifths Compromise. That compromise is gone, but the institution remains. It allowed Trump to win in 2016 despite losing the popular vote.
The Civil Rights Act of 1964 and Voting Rights Act of 1965 used existing constitutional authority to dismantle discriminatory barriers without new amendments.
The National Popular Vote Compact takes a similar legislative approach: once participating states control 270 electoral votes, they award them to the national popular-vote winner.
Now consider the historic governors just elected: Keisha Lance Bottoms, America’s first Black woman governor; David Crowley and Aaron Ford, the first Black governors of Wisconsin and Nevada; and Deb Haaland, the first Native American woman governor.
Communities historically excluded from political power now have leaders positioned to change how presidential power is awarded.
Crowley and Ford, working with their legislatures, could help lead that change.
The inversion: Leaders from historically excluded communities could use the states’ own constitutional authority to prevent an Electoral College shaped by slavery from overruling the national popular vote.