Oregon House OKs joining national popular vote movement

SALEM, Ore. (AP) – The Oregon House has voted to join an agreement among states that want to elect the U.S. president by popular vote.

Wednesday’s 34-23 vote fell along party lines in the Democrat-controlled House and now goes to the state Senate.

The Oregon House has voted to join the National Popular Vote compact three times since 2009, but each effort was blocked in the Senate by President Peter Courtney, a Democrat.

Courtney says he’ll allow it this year if Oregon voters have the final say, likely in November 2018.

The popular-vote movement gained new momentum after President Donald Trump’s Electoral College victory last fall.

The compact would sidestep the Electoral College when enacted by states with at least 270 total electoral votes. So far it has 165, and Oregon would add seven.

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Oregon House Democrats release:

SALEM – The Oregon House of Representatives voted today to join the fight to ensure that every vote is counted equally by passing the National Popular Vote compact.

House Bill 2927 , which passed the House by a vote of 34 to 23, was co-chief sponsored by Rep. Alissa Keny-Guyer (D-Portland), Rep. Dan Rayfield (D-Corvallis), Rep. Brian Clem (D-Salem) and Sen. Brian Boquist (R-Dallas).

“Oregon deserves a voice in who becomes president,” Rep. Keny-Guyer said. “The bill ensures that every vote , in every state, will matter in every presidential election.”

Currently, Oregon awards its electoral college votes to the winner of the popular vote in Oregon. This bill would award electoral college votes to the national popular vote winner. Five times in the history of the United States the winner of the presidency has not won the popular vote . It has happened twice since the 2000 presidential election.

The inequity of the electoral college system gives some votes more weight than others in electing a president. For instance, Oregon has a population of 4 million people and receives seven electoral votes. Wyoming has a population of 586,000 and receives three electoral votes. This means that Oregon has one electoral vote per 571,000 residents while Wyoming receives one electoral vote per 195,000 residents.

“The electoral college has proven itself to be outdated and fundamentally unfair,” Rep. Rayfield said. “It makes no sense that a vote for president in Wyoming is worth nearly three times as much as a vote in Oregon.”

During the 2004 presidential election, a shift of just 59,393 votes in Ohio would have been enough to award the electoral college victory to John Kerry in spite of a nearly three million vote lead by President George W. Bush in the national popular vote .

The bill also seeks to ensure that candidates for President of the United States actually campaign throughout the whole United States. During the 2016 election, candidates concentrated over two-thirds of their campaign visits and ad money in just 6 closely divided “battleground” states (Ohio, Florida, Virginia, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, and Michigan), and 94% in just 12 states.

“It is important if someone wants to represent the entire United States, they should have to campaign for every vote in every state – not just those votes in a handful of states,” Rep. Clem said. “Ultimately, this bill is about fairness within our democracy and ensuring that we meet our one voice, one vote standard.”

The bill now moves to the Oregon Senate for consideration.

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Release from the Oregon House Republican Office:

House Democrats adopt partisan proposal to circumvent Electoral College

Salem, Ore. – On a party-line vote, House Democrats today adopted HB 2927, a measure designed to circumvent the U.S. Constitution and the Electoral College by requiring Oregon’s electoral votes be awarded to the winner of the national popular vote for President of the United States. In opposing the bill, House Republicans argued that the current Electoral College system is consistent with the principles of federalism, ensures that the president is elected by a constitutional majority and protects against presidential campaigns that focus primarily on densely populated urban communities.

“This bill is inconsistent with the tenets of federalism and will almost certainly result in small states like Oregon being passed over in the presidential horserace for large population states and urban centers,” said Rep. Gene Whisnant, a longtime critic of the national popular vote movement. “I am disappointed to see this Legislature pursue such a blatant attempt at an end-run around our Constitution.”

Formally known as the Agreement Among the States to Elect the President by National Popular Vote, the compact requires a state’s electoral votes to be cast for the winner of the national popular vote regardless of the outcome in that state. In other words, if the national popular vote compact were in place during the 2004 election, Oregon’s electoral votes would have been cast for George W. Bush, despite the fact that John Kerry carried the state by nearly 100,000 votes.

“It is important for people to understand that under HB 2927, our state’s electoral votes might be cast for a candidate that did not even win our own state,” said Rep. Bill Post (R-Keizer). “I believe that kind of situation would give a lot of folks pause if it were to become a reality here in Oregon. I believe the best way to make Oregon more relevant in presidential races is to move up the date of our primaries.”

Republicans went on to point out that the national popular vote model would make presidential candidates far more likely to visit urban, densely populated states and ignore rural, sparsely populated states. Some also suggested that such a system could lead to the regionalization of presidential races, throwing our entire electoral system into chaos.

“We often look at national popular vote system through our current two party system,” concluded Rep. Whisnant. “But I think it is important to recognize that this model could lead to a situation where a group of candidates split votes in different geographic regions, culminating in the election of a president who only won with a small plurality of votes. Is that an outcome we are prepared to accept?”

If HB 2927 is signed into law by Governor Brown or passed by Oregon voters via a legislative referral , the provisions of the compact would not become operative until a group of states representing a majority of electoral votes has also adopted the compact. According to the National Conference of State Legislatures , 10 states and the District of Columbia have adopted the compact for a total of 165 electoral votes pledged so far, meaning proponents of the national popular vote are still 105 delegates short of what they need to advance their proposal. Should the National Popular Vote Compact achieve the required 270 delegates, it would almost certainly face extensive litigation.

HB 2927 passed the House by a vote of 34-23. The bill now moves to the Senate for further consideration.