Today, when you vote for a presidential ticket, you choose among the listed options (or write in a candidate) and select your preferred candidate. Under our Electoral College system, your state tallies all of the votes within your state, and whichever candidate wins the most votes in that state wins all of the electoral votes in that state. The losing candidates in that state receive zero electoral votes, even if they lose your state by only a few individual votes. The national popular vote, which reflects tallies of all of the individual votes in every state throughout the country, does not matter.
The Voter Choice Ballot, if adopted in your state, would allow you to decide how your state should count your individual vote. It would empower you (but not require you) to make the national popular vote relevant to how your state decides which candidates should win your state. In other words, through your individual vote, you would be able to ensure that your state considers the national popular vote when assigning its electoral votes.
The Ballot first asks you to select your preferred presidential ticket. That preference would be reflected in the national popular vote count of all the individual votes in every state throughout the country. In this important way, you have a say—equal to every other voter’s say in every state—in which candidates win the national popular vote.
Second, the Ballot asks whether you would like your vote to count for the winner of the national vote, whoever that may be. If you vote “yes,” then your state will count your vote for whichever candidate won the national popular vote, whether or not that candidate was your expressed preference. If you vote “no,” then your state will count your vote for your expressed preferred ticket, even if that candidate did not win the national popular vote.
Why would you consider voting “yes,” when it might mean that your state will count your individual vote for candidates you did not specifically select in your Ballot? Most important, a “yes” vote would signal your desire to have your vote count for the winner of the national popular vote in your state’s assignment of its electoral votes. Most Americans believe that the national popular vote winner should be elected President, but under our Electoral College system, the outcome of the national popular vote is irrelevant. The Ballot lets you make it relevant.
The Ballot gives the voter a chance to say who they want and also to say they want the national popular vote winner always to be elected. The voter has two decisions to make: (a) who do you want to be President, and (b) do you want the national popular vote winner to be President even if it’s not your preferred choice.
The Ballot has an added advantage for independents or anyone who does not prefer either of the two major party nominees. That voter can register a vote nationally for a third party candidate. That is a way to send a message to the major parties, or even to help start a new party. But by voting “yes” to the question of whether you want the national popular vote winner to be elected, you can make sure that your vote is not wasted in your state. You can make your point about a third party candidate, and also express your preference that the national popular vote winner is elected President.
The Ballot of course does not require any voter to make the national popular vote matter. A minority of Americans like the possibility that their candidate can lose the national popular vote and still win the Electoral College. Those voters simply check “no” to the second question.
Download the explanation here.