The Electoral College's Days Are Numbered
Democrats just took America one step closer to real democracy.
The electoral college just got one step closer to going away forever.
The National Popular Vote Interstate Compact is an agreement by states to allocate their electoral votes to whichever candidate wins the national popular vote, rather than their individual state’s popular vote. The compact takes effect once states totaling at least 270 electoral votes sign on.
The green states on the map above are members. The yellow states are ones that could foreseeably join in the near future. The map looks unusual because each state is sized to its electoral vote count. Once over half the map is green, the electoral college will be gone.
Virginia Democrats, led by newly elected Governor Abigail Spanberger, just made Virginia the latest state to join, and they did it within three months of her taking office. This is an incredible achievement. Every single time a candidate won the popular vote but lost the presidency due to the Electoral College, that candidate was a Democrat. Without the Electoral College, neither Bush nor Trump would have been initially elected.
It shouldn’t surprise anyone. A party that campaigns on an expansive social safety net and inclusive social policy will be more popular than one that has welcomed fascist ideologues into its coalition and openly opposed the democratic will of the majority, even when the Electoral College overrides it.
Spanberger’s win in Virginia is significant, but astute readers will notice that every state in the compact enacted it under full Democratic control. That’s no accident. Republicans understand that the Electoral College is essentially DEI for their party. It lets them campaign in a handful of states, run on a radically unpopular platform, and still win, because rural voters are caught in a vortex of right-wing media.
Every blue state should be working to join the compact. Doing so could either force Republicans to purge the fascists from their coalition or deliver a generation of Democratic dominance. Not only this, but it’s also what the American people want. Polls show 63% of voters want a popular vote for President.
The path to 270 is closer than it looks. Nevada Democrats nearly got there in 2023 before a Republican governor vetoed it, and a Democratic governor elected in 2026 could revive a statutory path. Wisconsin’s liberal Supreme Court, which flipped to a liberal majority in 2023 and just expanded to a 5-2 supermajority in April 2026, has already struck down the Republican gerrymander, with fairer maps in effect since 2024. That could make Wisconsin’s legislature a realistic target. Arizona, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and New Hampshire could all join with the right Democratic wave.
Those states alone would push the compact past 270. Democrats may be one blue wave away.
But there’s one more thing blue states need to do. Right now, every state has joined the compact through statute, meaning a single Republican trifecta could pull a state out. That vulnerability has to be closed. Blue states need to enshrine the compact in their state constitutions before that happens.
What do you think? Do you support the Electoral College going away? Which states do you think we can get to join next? Let us know in the replies!!!