OUR MISSION

The Making Every Vote Count Foundation is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, nonpartisan organization, dedicated to electing the president by a national popular vote.

Issues concerning the election of the country’s President and Vice-President have rarely been as intense and divisive as they are today. These issues include concerns that under our current election system not all votes count equally and that the entire election process—from choosing candidates; campaigning for the nomination and in the general election; messaging and policy choices; and governance after elections—is geared toward winning the electoral votes of the four to ten swing states with less than 20% of the country’s population. Other controversies concern voter suppression, election subversion, and election integrity. As a result of these controversies, public confidence in presidential elections is alarmingly low and still declining.

The MEVC Foundation’s goal is to analyze, prepare studies, inform the public, and promote discussion of these concerns; the strengths and weaknesses of the current system; possible reforms (including new ones); and strategies for enacting reforms.


THE PROBLEMS

Presidential elections are decided by voters in five to ten states with 20% of the U.S. population. Only votes in those states matter. Voter turnout is 14% lower in the other states. Minorities are particularly disadvantaged as a result. Primary voters, candidates, their parties, and their campaigns pay little attention to the voters in the other 40 states. This bias continues throughout the tenure in the White House and cuts across party lines. Distrust of the parties, our political system, elections, and government is at near-record highs.

Serious defects in this country’s election processes from election day to inauguration day enable threats to subvert the will of voters and undermine the integrity of our democratic processes. Although the 2020 presidential election was in many ways a success, there were unprecedented efforts by both elected and appointed federal and state officials, in the executive and legislative branches, to alter or nullify properly compiled election results. Many Americans continue to believe that the 2020 election was stolen, and they are being primed to believe it could happen again. There is no guarantee that our institutions will successfully withstand future pressures from those who cynically manipulate our system to disenfranchise voters and stoke partisan bitterness and outrage.


THE CAUSE

The winner-takes-all system. The current winner-takes-all system used by 48 out of 50 states to allocate their Electoral College votes incentivizes candidates and their campaigns to focus on swing states where the yield of electoral votes is the greatest. But the U.S. Constitution does not specify use of this system, and the founders did not intend that the states use it. The system was first adopted in 1800 by a single state, Virginia, for the partisan purpose of improving the chances of its favorite son, Thomas Jefferson, in the presidential election of that year. Other states gradually adopted the same system to obtain the same leverage as Virginia.


POSSIBLE SOLUTIONS

The Constitution (Article II, Section 1) gives full authority to the states to determine how they will allocate their electoral college votes. Having created and adopted the winner-take-all system, the states have the authority and obligation to replace or modify it, without the need to amend the Constitution. The following solutions can be pursued independently or in tandem.

 

Constitutional Amendment:

Replacing the electoral college system with a national popular vote system through constitutional amendment would be the most effective reform. However, this solution is not realistic in current circumstances. It would become more achievable if state-adopted reforms paved the way for a constitutional amendment.

Voter Choice Ballot:

Voter Choice Ballot is a type of ballot that states could adopt that would give that state’s voters the opportunity to cast their votes in favor of their preferred candidate in the tally of the national popular vote, but also to direct that their votes be counted for the winner of the national popular vote in their state’s allocation of its college votes if their preferred candidate does not win that vote.

The National Popular Vote Interstate Compact:

Under the Compact, each member state gives its votes to the winner of the national popular vote. The Compact would not go into effect until enough states totaling 270 electoral votes join—the number needed to secure a majority of electoral college votes. States totaling 196 electoral votes have signed on so far.

 
 

OUR REFORM STRATEGIES

  • Promoting public awareness of the failings of the Electoral College system and the need for reform.

  • Bringing together experts to analyze these issues and discuss potential solutions, including constitutional amendments, the Voter Choice Ballot, and the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact.

  • Raising the visibility of these issues at the national level through research and publication.