Article II of the Constitution establishes the electoral college as the method to elect the president of the United States. Article V requires that any amendment to change that constitutional process be ratified by three-fourths of the states.
Our Colorado Legislature’s passage of legislation to tie our state’s choice for president to the National Popular Vote Compact is a wholly partisan and underhanded attempt to circumvent not only the presidential election process established by the Constitution in 1789 but also the process by which it can be changed.
The Electoral College was a carefully and thoughtfully negotiated solution by the Constitutional Convention to protect the interests of the smaller states from being overpowered by the few most populous states of Virginia, Pennsylvania and Massachusetts. It also was crafted with the intent that our president represent interests beyond those of voters in the most populous states. The validity of the electoral college is more important than ever to protect these values.
Supporters of a national popular vote claim the 2016 presidential election was undemocratic because Hillary Clinton lost even though she received more votes nationally than Donald Trump. Our country is not a democracy. It is a republic made up of 50 states with a wide range of priorities. If one takes away the results of California for both candidates, Trump had 1.4 million more votes than Hillary. If one then does the same for New York, Trump had 3.1 million more votes.
A national popular vote that would effectively disenfranchise whole areas of our country should cause concern across the political spectrum. The petition process to put an issue of such dramatic implication on the ballot is nothing more than letting the voters in our state decide, rather than a handful of partisan legislators.