Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

Letter to the editor:

Popular vote is a Pandora’s box

In her June 9 guest column “Consider context in popular vote debate,” Sondra Cosgrove laments Gov. Steve Sisolak’s veto of Assembly Bill 186, the National Popular Vote Compact. I applaud the governor for this veto.

If Nevada joined the compact and it actually went into effect, Nevada would be required to award its Electoral College votes to the winner of the nationwide popular vote.

Imagine the bill went into effect for the 2020 election. President Donald Trump campaigns hard in New York and Northern California, which he ignored in 2016. He does not win there but he does gain enough new votes to win the popular vote. He also squeaks out an Electoral College victory, thanks to Nevada, which despite voting for his opponent, is bound to award Trump its votes. So, Nevada’s Democratic governor calls an emergency session and the Democratic-controlled Legislature withdraws from the compact. Hurrah.

But states with GOP-controlled legislatures, which had not joined the compact, and where Trump lost the state vote, call their own special sessions and join the compact. Soon, dozens of state courts are hearing cases and deciding to strike down or uphold these state actions.

You could argue that once a state joins the compact, it cannot leave. But no law passed by any state legislature is immune to being repealed by a later legislature. If you want a national popular vote to elect the president, change the Constitution.