National vote proposed to replace electoral college

Advocates called on Nevada lawmakers Thursday to endorse electing the president by tallying the national popular vote.

Barry Fadem of National Popular Vote told the Senate Legislative Operations and Elections Committee there have been four instances where the candidate who got the most votes failed to win the presidency because the other candidate received a majority in the electoral college, including Al Gore's 2000 loss to George W. Bush.

He said Assembly Bill 413 would fix that by mandating that Nevada's electoral votes go to the candidate who gets the highest number of votes nationally. At present, Nevada and most other states award their votes to the winner in their state.

Fadem testified the proposal is legal because the authors of the U.S. Constitution gave each state the right to decide how it would award electoral votes.

"This would make Nevada a presidential zero," said Janine Hansen of Eagle Forum. "It's an attempt to circumvent the Constitution. Eleven states could determine the presidency."

She said the presidency should be determined by a "consensus, not a faction" of the nation.

Fadem said with the electoral college, votes have a different value in different states.

"Every vote cast for president should count equally," he said.

Rebecca Gasca of the American Civil Liberties Union said that organization shares the goals expressed in the bill but disagrees with the bill. She said there should be a threshold the winning candidate must reach of at least 40 percent.

The committee took no action on the proposal.