Virginia House passes bill to award electoral votes to whoever wins the popular vote

by The Right Scoop

Virginia is about to join the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact, whose purpose is to usurp the constitution and award presidential delegates in the general election to the winner of the popular vote:

THE HILL – The Democratic-led Virginia House of Delegates has passed legislation that seeks to award the state’s electoral votes to the presidential candidate that wins the national popular vote in an election.

The measure, also known as House Bill 177, passed the legislative chamber in a 51-46 vote on Tuesday after clearing the body’s Privileges and Elections Committee in a vote last week.

If the legislation is passed by the Senate, where Democrats also hold control, and signed into law by the governor, Virginia would subsequently be entered into the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact.

“Under the compact, Virginia agrees to award its electoral votes to the presidential ticket that receives the most popular votes in all 50 states and the District of Columbia,” a bill summary states. “The compact goes into effect when states cumulatively possessing a majority of the electoral votes have joined the compact.”

“A state may withdraw from the compact; however, a withdrawal occurring within six months of the end of a President’s term shall not become effective until a President or Vice President has qualified to serve the next term,” the summary continues.

The compact thus far only has 196 delegates thus far.

It needs another 74 delegates to reach a majority of 270 before this can take affect:

So far, only 15 states and Washington, D.C., have entered the compact, according to National Popular Vote, a nonprofit group tracking the status of states on the issue. A group of states possessing 74 electoral votes would need to join the agreement in order for the compact to take effect.

This doesn’t count Virginia with their 13 delegates. Once they join, the compact will only need 61 more delegates. Of course, all of this assumes it will stand up to a challenge in the court system.

Ted Cruz commented on this earlier today, noting that our founders would be appalled:


Comment Policy: Please read our comment policy before making a comment. In short, please be respectful of others and do not engage in personal attacks. Otherwise we will revoke your comment privileges.