LANSING, Mich. — Lawmakers want to see Michigan added to a growing list of states that would use the national popular vote to decide how their electoral college votes are distributed in a presidential election.
“Our current system is clearly broken," said state Rep. Carrie Rheingans. "We can change it by passing this legislation. Enacting national popular vote will apply the concept of one person, one vote to our national elections and make every voter politically relevant in our presidential elections.”
Right now, the U.S. uses what’s called “first past the post elections,” which means the first candidate to reach 270 electoral votes wins the election even if they don’t win the popular vote.
“Under our current system, five of our 46 presidents have won the election to the presidency without winning the most popular votes in all 50 states and D.C.," said Rheingans.
If enacted across the country, this would be a major change to our elections, but it’s a slow process. This effort has been introduced in Michigan before without much success.
Currently, 16 states have signed onto the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact, which is a total of 195 electoral votes. If Michigan passes the legislation, the state's 15 electoral votes would be added bringing the total to 210. Once the compact gets over 270 electoral votes, it would go into effect.
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