If you can’t beat the Electoral College, join them. Since last April, New Jersey and Maryland have signed onto the National Popular Vote compact, and today with Governor Blagojevich’s signature, Illinois–a state both presidential candidates skipped during the 2004 general election–took the pledge as well.
The compact needs 270 electoral votes to take effect; including Illinois, the plan is now one-sixth of the way there. Organizers aim to have the system in place by 2012.
In the meantime, what’s particularly egregious is how several governors (that is, Hawaii’s Linda Lingle and California’s Arnold Schwarzenegger) are using their veto power to block their states from signing onto the compact. Given, perhaps, the specter of what might’ve happened in 2000 under NPV, the GOP has generally been more reluctant to embrace the system. Yet the system’s benefits would accrue to anyone whose votes currently aren’t counted–and that includes Democrats in Texas as much as Republicans in California.
