skip to main content
skip to newscasts

Friday, March 29, 2024

Public News Service Logo
facebook instagram linkedin reddit youtube twitter
view newscast page
play newscast audioPlay

The latest on the Key Bridge collapse, New York puts forth legislation to get clean energy projects on the grid and Wisconsin and other states join a federal summer food program to help feed kids across the country.

view newscast page
play newscast audioPlay

Republicans float conspiracy theories on the collapse of Baltimore's Key Bridge, South Carolina's congressional elections will use a map ruled unconstitutional, and the Senate schedules an impeachment trial for Homeland Secretary Mayorkas.

view newscast page
play newscast audioPlay

Historic wildfires could create housing and health issues for rural Texans, a Kentucky program helps prison parolees start a new life, and descendants of Nicodemus, Kansas celebrate the Black settlers who journeyed across the 1870s plains seeking self-governance.

Advocates Promote Bill to Ensure Majority Rule

play audio
Play

Monday, November 21, 2016   

HARRISBURG, Pa. – This election was the fifth time in U.S. history that the candidate who got the most votes failed to win the presidency, but a bill that has passed in ten states and the District of Columbia could change that.

The Constitution says the states decide how to allocate their votes in the Electoral College. The National Popular Vote bill is an interstate compact that would assign a state's electoral college votes based on the national vote tally.

Patrick Rosenstiel, a senior consultant with the group National Popular Vote, said the law would be activated in a presidential election year in which 270 or more electoral votes come from states that have the law on their books.

"And those states award all of their electors en bloc to the candidate who gets the most popular votes in all 50 states,” Rosenstiel explained, "which is the best way, the constitutionally appropriate way, to make this change."

New York, New Jersey and eight other states with a combined total of 165 electoral votes have passed the bill. It also has passed in one legislative chamber in a dozen other states that comprise an additional 96 electoral votes.

The bill would have an impact before election day, too. Now, presidential campaigns focus on appealing to voters in swing states. According to Rosenstiel, 94 percent of campaign events in 2016 happened in just 12 states - with more than half in only four.

"A national popular vote election would force candidates to campaign in all 50 states and the District of Columbia,” he said, "because the candidate who gets the most votes would be guaranteed the presidency."

The bill has been introduced in all 50 states and has broad, bipartisan support, Rosenstiel said. He pointed out that in polls across the country, 70 percent or more of voters favor a nationwide vote for president.

"We're increasingly confident that the 2020 presidential election will be run under the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact,” Rosenstiel said. "And we believe that's going to be in the best interests of the country and the best interests of the body politic."

The bill was introduced in the Pennsylvania General Assembly in 2011 with 41 sponsors in the Senate and nine in the House, but did not pass in either chamber.

More information is online at nationalpopularvote.com.



get more stories like this via email

more stories
The U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments this week about the popular abortion pill Mifepristone and will weigh in on whether the U.S. Food and Drug Administration was correct in how it can be dosed and prescribed. (Ascannio/Adobe Stock)

Health and Wellness

play sound

Missouri residents are worried about future access to birth control. The latest survey from The Right Time, an initiative based in Missouri…


Social Issues

play sound

Wisconsin children from low-income families are now on track to get nutritious foods over the summer. Federal officials have approved the Badger …

Social Issues

play sound

Almost 2,900 people are unsheltered on any given night in the Beehive State. Gov. Spencer Cox is celebrating signing nine bills he says are geared …


The U.S. teaching workforce remains primarily white while the percentage of Black teachers has declined. However, the percentage of Asian and Latinx teachers is rising.(WavebreakMediaMicro/Adobestock)

Social Issues

play sound

Education advocates are calling on lawmakers to increase funding for programs to combat the teacher shortage. Around 37% of schools nationwide …

Environment

play sound

New York's Legislature is considering a bill to get clean-energy projects connected to the grid faster. It's called the RAPID Act, for "Renewable …

Social Issues

play sound

Earlier this month, a new Arizona Public Service rate hike went into effect and one senior advocacy group said those on a fixed income may struggle …

Social Issues

play sound

Michigan recently implemented a significant juvenile justice reform package following recommendations from a task force made up of prosecutors…

 

Phone: 303.448.9105 Toll Free: 888.891.9416 Fax: 208.247.1830 Your trusted member- and audience-supported news source since 1996 Copyright © 2021