Following Donald Trump’s 2016 victory over an opponent who won 3 million more votes, Colorado’s Democrat-controlled Legislature is fast-tracking legislation to join other states in picking the president based on the national popular vote. The House State, Veterans, & Military Affairs Committee sent the bill to the full House on a 6-3 party line vote late Tuesday. Republicans fiercely oppose the bill , which has cleared Colorado’s Senate. They argue it subverts an Electoral College that the Founding Fathers created to ensure smaller states don’t get trampled when it comes to choosing the president. Colorado would join 11 states and the District of Columbia in the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact. The campaign was launched after Democrat Al Gore lost the 2000 election to Republican George W. Bush despite winning more votes.
Currently, citizens voting for president are choosing electors from the political parties. The college has 538 electors, corresponding to the number of seats held by states in the U.S. Senate and House, plus three votes allotted to the District of Columbia.
The interstate compact would go into effect once it has enough states with a collective 270 electoral votes — the number needed to elect a president. Compact members, including giants California (55 electoral votes) and New York (29), currently have 172 electors. Colorado, with nine, would give it 181.
Electors from compact states would pool their votes for the national popular vote winner — whether or not that candidate won those individual states.
Full Article: Colorado Democrats push changes to presidential electors | Myrtle Beach Sun News.