Please support L.D. 1578, the bill in our Maine legislature that supports the National Popular Vote (NPV). Every elected official in the United States gets elected by a popular vote; she who gets the most votes wins — except when we vote for president. The Electoral College system enables us to elect presidents who lose the popular vote, but win the Electoral College vote. In two of the last four presidential elections candidates have won the presidency but lost the popular vote. This needs to change.

The idea behind the NPV is that when states with 270 or more combined electors sign on, they will support whichever candidate wins the popular vote in all 50 states. Everyone’s vote will count the same. Not only is this more fair than the current system, it is more democratic.

So far 15 states and Washington D.C. with a total of 195 electoral votes have signed on to the compact, and Maine should follow suit. According to a poll in 2020, 59.7% of all Mainers support NPV. Because states have the constitutional right to assign electors in any way they choose, NPV is constitutional and a common sense fix to a system that is simply not fair.

Please support L.D. 1578 with your local senator and state representative.

Emanuel Pariser

Waterville