The Virginia Senate has approved a bill seeking to base presidential election results on the national popular vote rather than the electoral vote.
The Senate passed Sen. Adam Ebbin’s (D-39) national popular vote bill 21-19 on party lines Monday, and the House voted to engross a companion bill and will have a final vote today (Thursday).
The National Popular Vote interstate compact seeks to use constitutional authority allowing states to decide how to award electoral votes — by switching to a nationwide popular vote. According to the Virginia legislation, the compact could take effect if a majority of the United States’ electoral votes — 270 of the total 538 — have joined the compact.
The states, plus D.C., that have joined the compact so far represent 209 electoral votes, and Virginia would add 13 more.
A national popular vote model would base results on the total votes in 50 states and D.C. Under the current system, electoral votes are designated based on the population in each U.S. Census.
Democratic legislators argued that an electoral college-based model causes presidential candidates to campaign largely in battleground states. Virginia isn’t currently considered one of those states, as it has voted for Democratic presidential candidates since 2008.
“We know that every vote is not equal through the United States, throughout the country, in voting for president,” Ebbin said in remarks on the Senate floor. “Presidential candidates concentrate their campaigns on winning closely divided battleground states.”
There have been five times in U.S. history that a presidential candidate lost the national popular vote but was elected on electoral votes. Two of these times were in the 21st century — President George W. Bush’s 2000 election and President Donald Trump’s 2016 election.
“At a time when faith in our form of government is at a historic low, and billionaires can buy our elections without consequence, we need common sense measures like the National Popular Vote Contract to restore trust in our democracy,” Del. Dan Helmer (D-10), the House bill’s co-sponsor, told ARLnow.
Republicans, noting Trump won the popular vote in the 2024 election, argued in support of the current electoral college system.
“I trust our founders and I trust the drafters of the Constitution of the United States of America, and I think that the electoral college serves a very important purpose, and I think Virginia ought to have a role in the outcome of national elections,” state Sen. Mark Obsenshain (R-2) said on the Senate floor. “I think this surrenders it, and we would be imprudent in doing so.”
State Sen. David Suetterlein (R-4) said that national figures are frequently present in Northern Virginia, but the electoral college has incentivized several to visit his Roanoke Valley district in recent years.
“They all came in the Roanoke Valley because of the electoral college,” said Suetterlein, who also expressed concern about Trump’s call to nationalize elections. “It’s very hard to think a population center with only about a quarter million people is going to get these major presidential candidates coming through and speaking to the issues that are important to us.”
On the Senate floor, Senate Majority Leader Scott Surovell (D-34) said the Founding Fathers put the electoral college in place at a time when only white male property owners could vote.
“The [origin] of the electoral college was to basically augment the power of the South because of slaves, in addition to making sure the people didn’t have a vote,” Surovell said. “Today, five of the six states whose population is 25% or more Black, vote reliably Republican. And so, you know what? Those votes don’t get counted either.”
A Gallup poll released before the 2024 election found that 58% of respondents favor moving to a national popular vote, while 39% support the current electoral college system. Support for the national popular vote is greater among Democrats and independent voters than Republicans.
