The National Popular Vote Interstate Compact is an attempt to do an end run around the electoral college. Signers promise their electors will vote for the national popular vote winner — but only if enough states sign on to add up to the magic 270.
This month, Oregon became the third state this year and the 16th overall to approve the measurer, but the plan is still 74 electors short. Nevada approved the plan this year, but Governor Steve Sisolak vetoed it.
Senators Karen Tallian (D-Portage) and Mark Stoops (D-Bloomington) have introduced bills to add Indiana to the compact, but it didn’t get a hearing this year and Stoops says he doesn’t expect that to change. He maintains Republicans believe the Electoral College favors them, and says it’s the nature of politicians on both sides to focus on the short term.
All the states which have joined the compact are blue states — they haven’t voted Republican since Colorado and New Mexico went for George W. Bush in 2004.
Two of the last three presidents won the White House while losing the popular vote: Bush in his first term in 2000 and Donald Trump in 2016. Stoops argues state boundaries are arbitrary and create undue emphasis on winning big states.