To: The Connecticut State House and The Connecticut State Senate
Make CT Votes Matter in Presidential Elections - Join National Popular Vote Compact
The Connecticut General Assembly should pass HB 5434 to join the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact. By doing so, Connecticut will no longer be a spectator state in presidential elections; every vote cast for president will matter.
Why is this important?
We believe democracy demands that every vote should matter equally and the president should be the one who wins the most votes. Neither was true in the past election, the second time in the last five elections.
Under the winner-take-all method of awarding electoral votes, voters in Connecticut and other reliably blue or red states are ignored. Of nearly 400 events during the 2016 general election, 94% were in held in just 12 battleground states, only one was held in Connecticut.
The NPV Compact is an agreement among states to award their electoral college votes to the winner of the national popular vote. Once states holding 270 electoral votes join, the Compact will go into effect, making the national popular vote winner the president. Ten states and the District of Columbia, representing 165 electoral votes, have joined the Compact over the past 10 years.
The Compact does not abolish the Electoral College. It works within the framework of the Constitution, which gives the states the power to appoint Electors, “in such Manner as the Legislature thereof may direct.”
Support for the Compact is bipartisan. Newt Gingrich wrote, “This important project has the potential to transform the way we elect our presidents and to make sure all Americans have a voice in their future." During President Trump’s first week in office the Wall Street Journal reported that he “told Congressional leaders that he was interested in getting rid of the Electoral College and replacing it with a national popular vote.”
The measure is not new; it passed the CT House in 2009 and has received bipartisan joint favorable votes in the General Administration and Elections Committee in 2011, 2013 and 2014. NPV legislation is currently under consideration in 19 states, many of them red.
Please make Connecticut’s votes matter by supporting the NPV Compact.
Under the winner-take-all method of awarding electoral votes, voters in Connecticut and other reliably blue or red states are ignored. Of nearly 400 events during the 2016 general election, 94% were in held in just 12 battleground states, only one was held in Connecticut.
The NPV Compact is an agreement among states to award their electoral college votes to the winner of the national popular vote. Once states holding 270 electoral votes join, the Compact will go into effect, making the national popular vote winner the president. Ten states and the District of Columbia, representing 165 electoral votes, have joined the Compact over the past 10 years.
The Compact does not abolish the Electoral College. It works within the framework of the Constitution, which gives the states the power to appoint Electors, “in such Manner as the Legislature thereof may direct.”
Support for the Compact is bipartisan. Newt Gingrich wrote, “This important project has the potential to transform the way we elect our presidents and to make sure all Americans have a voice in their future." During President Trump’s first week in office the Wall Street Journal reported that he “told Congressional leaders that he was interested in getting rid of the Electoral College and replacing it with a national popular vote.”
The measure is not new; it passed the CT House in 2009 and has received bipartisan joint favorable votes in the General Administration and Elections Committee in 2011, 2013 and 2014. NPV legislation is currently under consideration in 19 states, many of them red.
Please make Connecticut’s votes matter by supporting the NPV Compact.