This could be big. The National Popular Vote bill has been introduced in the California State Assembly! That’s not the big part, though. In itself, it’s not even news. The bill has been introduced twice before, in 2006 and again in 2008. The Assembly passed it both times, and so did the state Senate. However, Republican opposition to it was monolithic. In 2006, it received one Republican vote in the Assembly and zero in the Senate; in 2008, it didn’t get a single Republican vote in either house. Then-Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger vetoed it both times. This time it’s different. This time, it’s bipartisan. This time, one of the bill's co-authors, Assemblyman Brian Nestande, is a Republican. Nestande is not some random maverick either; he’s chairman of the Republican caucus, the No. 2 leadership position. And it’s likely that there will be at least four other G.O.P. co-sponsors. Nestande’s Democratic co-author, Assemblyman Jerry Hill, is chairman of his caucus. I’m told nine more Democrats are about to join up as co-sponsors. In other words, the bill's legislative supporters are a delightfully motley crew, spanning the ideological spectrum from Orange County conservative to Berkeley liberal. Governor Jerry Brown is reliably reported to be ready to sign. So the chances are looking good. At this rate, I wouldn’t be surprised to see Arnold himself turn around and endorse the bill. Having every citizen’s vote be worth going after in a Presidential election—even if the citizen lives in a non-battleground state like California—is the kind of idea that you’d think would be right up his alley.
All along, the biggest stumbling block to N.P.V. has been that the first reaction of many Republicans is to suspect that it’s a nefarious plot to reverse the outcome of the 2000 election. That’s understandable. But there’s never been any good substantive reason for Republicans to oppose electing our Presidents the same way we elect our governors, our mayors, and our legislators. And now, with Bush v. Gore more than ten years in the past, growing numbers of Republicans are willing to examine the merits of having our national leader chosen in a national election after a national campaign on national issues.
So far, Maryland, New Jersey, Illinois, Washington, Hawaii, Massachusetts, and the District of Columbia, which have a combined total of seventy-four electoral votes, have enacted the N.P.V. bill, under which the compacting states pledge to cast their electoral votes for the winner of the national popular vote. To bring the plan into effect, states with a combined total of two hundred and seventy must sign up. I don’t want to count any unhatched chickens, but if California throws its fifty-five votes into the ring, the United States will be nearly halfway there—47.8 per cent, to be exact. Today, in Sacramento, the California Assembly’s Committee on Elections and Redistricting opens hearings on the bill. Special video bonus, above: Assemblymen Nestande and Hill, along with N.P.V.’s Barry Fadem, explain why it’s a good idea. Debates to Remember Cover Story Royals in Bed Can Twitter Be Made in China