Colorado Referendum Would Remove State From Popular Vote Compact, Protect Electoral College

Voters in Colorado will have the opportunity to reverse a liberal policy imposed on them by a Democrat governor and legislature that found their state enjoined in the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact (NPVIC). A move to dis-enjoin the state from the compact has made the November ballot in referendum form.

The NPVIC is a conglomeration of states that have agreed to commit their electoral college votes based on the popular vote when the coalition has enough state members to total 270 votes in the Electoral College. There are currently 15 states, plus Washington, DC, that are in the compact, totaling 196 electoral votes.

In 2019, Colorado’s Progressive-Democrat Legislature, along with its Democrat Governor, Jared Polis, passed legislation to join the compact. But voters opposing the inclusion of Colorado in the compact collected over 225,000 signatures in support of repealing the law. That referendum is on the November ballot.

“When the founders came up with the Electoral College, they recognized it as a brilliant compromise that respected the fact that the power comes from the people, but we also have states,” Trent England, the executive director of Save Our States said. His organization opposes the NPV compact. “It prevented the biggest states or the biggest cities from controlling everything…it’s still true today.”

There is a concentrated effort to dismantle the Electoral College and it’s being championed by the media https://t.co/T0C2jGvGzO

— Save Our States (@SaveOurStates) October 28, 2020

“The Electoral College still makes sure our executive branch is not just run by a handful of big cities or the strips of population-dense areas on the coast,” England said. “The campaigns are fighting it out across the country in states like Arizona, Nevada and Wisconsin.”

Those who oppose the Electoral College have consistently spoken of the many benefits of electing the President and Vice President by popular vote. But pure democracy was abhorred by the Framers and rightly recognized as mob rule; government that failed to protect the rights of the minority.