The League of Women Voters believes that the direct-popular-vote method for electing the President and Vice-President is essential to representative government. The League of Women Voters believes, therefore, that the Electoral College should be abolished.
We support the use of the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact (NPV) as one acceptable way to achieve the goal of the direct popular vote for election of the president until the abolition of the Electoral College is accomplished.
NPV is nonpartisan. NPV favors voters, not parties, land, geography, factions, or states. NPV works within the constitution, and does not change or abolish the Electoral College.
The National Popular Vote Interstate Compact guarantees the presidency to the candidate who receives the most popular votes in all 50 states and the District of Columbia. With the National Popular Vote:
- Every vote in every state in every presidential election will be equal. No battleground states, no spectator states.
- The candidate with the most votes across all 50 states and DC will win. No 2nd place winners.
- Candidates will be motivated to seek voter support in all 50 states and DC. No more swing states or spectator states.
- Voter participation will increase because voters will know their vote matters.

How We Elect a President Now
On Election Day (or before!), you and I cast our ballots for the candidate of our choice, but the real vote is when 538 electors meet on a constitutionally determined day in December and cast their ballots. Those are the intermediaries who make up the Electoral College. Who chooses them?
Article II, Section I of the US Constitution gives states the sole authority to determine the manner by which it chooses its Electors.
“Each State shall appoint, in such Manner as the Legislature thereof may direct, a Number of Electors, equal to the whole Number of Senators and Representatives to which the State may be entitled in the Congress .”
Forty-eight state legislatures passed laws to choose its electors by “winner take all." The candidate who wins the most votes gets all of the state’s electoral votes, whether the candidate wins by 100,000 votes or 1 vote.
Maine and Nebraska passed laws to choose their electors by the “district” method; each of those states’ congressional districts choose their elector by the popular vote winner in that district; the rest of the state’s electoral votes go to the statewide popular vote winner—whether the win is by 100,000 votes or 1 vote!
Maine casts 2 of its 4 votes for the winner of the state-wide popular vote. Maine Congressional Districts (CD 1 and CD 2) each cast 1 vote for the winner of the popular vote in their district.
Since the Maine state legislature changed to the district method in 1972:
- Maine cast all 4 votes for a single candidate until 2016.
- Maine split its votes in 2016 and 2020. CD 2 cast its 1 vote for the Republican.
- The Republican candidate won Maine in every election between ’72 and ’92. Votes cast for the Democrat were essentially irrelevant.
- The Democratic candidate won Maine in every election since ’92. Votes cast for the Republican were essentially irrelevant.
Over 2 million votes cast for the Republican candidate between 1988 and 2020 yielded 2 Electoral College votes.
With winner take all, whether state-wide or at the district level, voters who did not vote for the majority winner had their votes effectively given to that candidate. Those voices and votes were muffled.