Maine considers joining Democratic-led initiative to elect president based on popular vote, bypassing Electoral College

A new Maine bill was passed by the state legislature on Wednesday that would tie Maine’s Electoral College votes for president to the country’s popular vote.

The bill narrowly passed the state’s lower chamber in a 73-72 vote. It was then approved by the state Senate, and it now heads to the desk of Gov. Janet Mills (D-ME), who has not indicated whether she will sign the legislation. If she does, the state would join a national movement where each state in the agreement would assign their Electoral College votes to the candidate who wins the national popular vote.

“The Maine legislature’s approval of the NPV bill gets our country one step closer to a goal that already enjoys broad bipartisan support and simply makes sense: electing the president by popular vote,” former Michigan Republican Party Chairman Saul Anuzis told the Washington Examiner. “The National Popular Vote plan advances the principle of one-person, one-vote when electing the president. That’s good for every voter, the integrity of our elections, and the health of our democracy. Period.”

Anuzis’s support as a Republican is rare because the NPV movement is largely supported by Democrats. Republicans have claimed that the movement tries to go around the Constitution and diminishes states’ influence in the general election.

Maine Republicans were mostly united in opposition to the bill, but some have supported it. The state’s Democrats, mostly in favor of the NPV movement, still had some holdouts in the votes.

“People tend to assume that rural, smaller-population states — which tend to be conservative — are well-represented by the current system. But that’s not true,” Anuzis said. “Under the current system, four out of five American voters are ignored in the general election for president. Under the current system, candidates have no reason to campaign in or address the concerns of voters living in non-battleground states.”

Democratic state Rep. Steve Moriarty claimed that the current electoral system reduces Maine’s role because it’s only worth four Electoral College votes, according to Maine Public Radio. He also claimed the current system does not work because the election system often comes down to a half-dozen swing states.

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The state would join 16 other states that have already agreed to support the presidential candidate that wins the popular vote. But the 16-state compact would only be activated if they have a total of 270 Electoral College votes, which would decide the presidential election.

The compact comes as the 2024 presidential election is expected to be decided by Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin. Former President Donald Trump is leading President Joe Biden in six of the seven states, according to a Wall Street Journal poll released on Tuesday.