[Organization] is pleased to announce that on [date] it endorsed an innovative and potentially transformational Proposal to reform the broken system for electing the President. Now known as the Voter Choice Ballot, the concept was unveiled publicly in March 2020 on the Making Every Vote Count (MEVC) blog and in an amicus brief recently filed in the “faithless electors” case before the Supreme Court.
MEVC describes the Voter Choice Ballot Proposal as:
. . . a new idea, an important idea, a breakthrough idea.
[Organization] agrees. For a complete analysis of the Voter Choice Ballot Proposal and the reasons it may be a breakthrough, see reports from the MNCCE Presidential Elections Team, found on the MEVC blog. Key features are highlighted here.
The Voters Choice Ballot Proposal is elegant in its simplicity. It is potentially profound in its impact.
The Proposal makes minimal changes. There is no change in the Electoral College itself. There is no change in state laws that award the state’s electoral votes to the winner of the state election (or, in Maine and Nebraska, to winners of district elections). Every voter still would vote for their preferred candidate for president.
The singular change is this: each voter is given the option of having their ballot counted for the winner of the national popular vote. It is that simple. And it is that profoundly democratic. The voters decide the extent to which the national popular vote is relevant.
Polling suggests this simple change could have a pronounced impact. In a February 2020 nation-wide/Florida poll, strong majorities across all parties and all demographics favored giving voters the option to have their ballots counted for the winner of the national popular vote. These data show that if the Ballot were adopted in battleground states like Florida, Minnesota and Arizona, the country’s presidential elections would no longer be determined by the outcome of six to ten battleground states with only 20% of the country’s population. Instead, candidates, parties, and campaigns would become attuned and responsive to the voters of all states, and all voters nationwide would count equally.
The impact is immediate. When a state adopts the proposal, it becomes effective as of the next presidential election. There is no waiting for other states to act or for the constitution to be amended.
The Proposal is in complete alignment with the Interstate Compact for election of the president by national popular vote. The Proposal supplements the Compact by empowering individual voters to cast national popular vote ballots immediately, before the Compact is in force. As millions of voters begin casting national popular vote ballots, and as Secretaries of State begin calculating who won the national vote and allocating votes to that winner, the prospects for the Interstate Compact can only improve. The Proposal makes the national popular vote as relevant as possible as soon as possible, pending the day when the Compact is in force.