WRAL: “When it comes to electing the president, North Carolina needs to go back to the future.
In 2007 the state Senate passed a bill directing that the state’s electoral college votes for president be cast for the candidate who received the most votes nationwide. Essentially, it rids the nation of the antiquated electoral college without the cumbersome process of amending the U.S. Constitution.
It will give EVERY voter in the state a stronger voice in determining who becomes the nation’s next president.
The 2007 bill, sponsored by Sen. Dan Clodfelter, a Democrat who went on to serve as mayor of Charlotte, passed 30-18. Only a single member today – Senate leader Phil Berger, R-Rockingham County – was around then. The bill went to the House of Representatives where it never even came up in the Elections Law and Campaign Finance Committee for consideration.
Joining the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact, which now includes 16 states that account for 196 electoral votes (a presidential candidate needs 270 to win) would eliminate another now irrelevant vestige of slavery from biasing our nation’s politics. It was James Madison who contended that in a direct election, non-slaveholding states of the north would overpower voting in the South, where slaves (more than 500,000 in a nation with a total population of about 4 million) could not vote….
Rep. James Holland of North Carolina was right in 1803 when he said during a congressional debate: “The will of the majority in their election of the Chief Magistrate” must be “the first principle of our Government.” The state Senate was right when it voted to join the compact in 2007 and the time is right to revive that legislation and pass it into law now.
A national election system where the candidate who gets the most votes wins will give North Carolina a STRONGER voice in the selection of the president. Candidates will need to pay more heed to all the state’s voters and campaign more vigorously to win support. Writing off North Carolina because of current electoral college calculations, won’t be an option.
North Carolina must be heard in Washington. Joining the compact will give the state a stronger voice.”