One particularly unpleasant bit of madness is still spreading around the country and now the symptoms have shown up in the state of Maine. The state's Democratic Governor, Janet Mills, announced this week that she will allow a public proposal to have Maine join the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact to become law, though she opted not to sign the measure herself. This is the rather crazy idea where primarily blue states will award all of their electoral votes to the winner of the popular vote in presidential elections. Not only does the idea fly in the face of the Constitution and the principles of the Founding Fathers, but it could easily come back to bite them where the sun doesn't shine. We'll explore the potential for that happening below. (Associated Press)
Maine will become the latest to join a multistate effort to elect the president by popular vote with the Democratic governor’s announcement Monday that she’s letting the proposal become law without her signature.
Under the proposed compact, each state would allocate all its electoral votes to whoever wins the national popular vote for president, regardless of how individual states voted in an election.
But the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact is on hold for now — and won’t play a role in the upcoming November election.
In attempting to defend this position, Mills said she believes that "the person who wins the most votes should become the president. To do otherwise seemingly runs counter to the democratic foundations of our country.”
First of all, with a few exceptions in recent history, the person who ends up winning the presidency generally does get the most votes. But not always, and contrary to Mills' claims, that was not part of the "democratic foundations of our country." The Founders built the Electoral College specifically to protect the rights and power of smaller states, precisely like Maine. They believed that a president should be able to win over the support of people from all parts of the country rather than muscling their way to victory while only favoring the major population centers.
Further, the nation was founded on the belief that everyone's vote should count, whether their preferred candidate wins or not. Under this new scheme, all of the eligible voters from Maine would be able to cast a vote for president, but those votes would be thrown out the window after election day and they would be recorded as having supported a candidate that they may not have voted for. In what world is that a Democratic system?
As I mentioned above, we are at a point where this scheme could seriously backfire on the Democrats. Thus far, 15 states plus the District of Columbia have joined the compact and they are almost all entirely blue, though Minnesota sometimes runs a bit more purple at times. (Minnesota hasn't voted for a Republican president since 1972.) This year's race is shaping up to be very close. Depending on how badly people have soured on Biden's economy by November if Donald Trump does manage to win, it's not inconceivable that he could carry the popular vote as well. How are all the Democrats in Maine and all of the rest of those states going to feel if their votes wind up being counted in Donald Trump's column? The history books will make it look as if Trump won in an absolute landslide.
There's an old bit of wisdom floating around out there that the voters of Maine should probably be reminded of. Be careful what you wish for. You just might get it.
