Archive for the National Popular Vote Category

By Daniel Lishansky, NPV Committee Chair With primary voting and election season here, we are bombarded with news about the Electoral College and Swing States, also known as Battleground States. These are the states that can go Red or Blue in the election. They will determine the winner of the election, while the Spectator States are predictable and generally ignored. In the 1990s it was common to have 16 or more Swing States in a presidential election. But that dwindled to 12 by 2008. And for 2024 there will be just five Swing States. The problem is that campaigns focus on attracting voters in just those few Swing States, while the voters in the other 45 states are taken for granted. Each state passes its own law directing how it will award its electoral votes. Two states, Maine and Nebraska, award their electoral votes by congressional district. A candidate receives

LOTS OF NEW MEMBERS, ENTHUSIASM FOR NPV EFFORTS By Daniel Lishansky, NPV Chair Reisha Allen, Sheila Arons, JoAnna Callahan, Lynn Crowder, Arlene DeWitt, Renee Drake Fore, Amy Eisinger, Lori Geiger, Nancy Gordon, Judi Greenberger, James Gregory, Peter Grossman, Jody Mindell, Laura Mindell, Elvira Murphy, Elaine Padilla, Josette Turret, Karen Zaremba and Nancy Zelman. Our next meeting will be Tuesday, Jan. 23, (the 4th Tuesday of each month) at 5:30 p.m. on Zoom. Everyone is invited, even those who don’t want to join but want to hear more about National Popular Vote. Members will receive a reminder notice with the Zoom link. If you’d like to attend without joining, send me an email (npv@lwvpbc.org) and I will send you the Zoom link. A major point of every National Popular Vote presentation is that not every vote across the country counts and not every vote counts equally. The coverage of the 2024

This Opinion was recently submitted by Kathleen Crampton in response to an article that appeared in ‘The Washington Post’ on Dec. 8, 2023.  Read the article here.     To the Editor: The Dec. 8 article, “Small segment of voters will wield outsize power in 2024 presidential race,” correctly points out that the current system of electing the president leaves most Americans out in the cold: “During the last election, just 10 states and two congressional districts were targeted by Republican or Democratic nominees’ campaigns,” and only “1 in 4 Americans lived in these areas.” The 2024 presidential campaigns will look similar. However, the article later states, “… there is considered to be little prospect for change given the country’s polarization and high barriers to amending the Constitution.” The thing is, a Constitutional amendment is not needed to enact the national popular vote for president, which, according to the Pew Research Center,

By Daniel Lishansky, Chair- National Popular Vote Committee House Minority Leader Fentrice Driskell (Hillsborough) hosted a special briefing on “Voting Issues in Florida” and invited Floridians for National Popular Vote to organize the briefing and to provide the speakers. It was held October 18, 2023, in Tallahassee for members of the Democratic Caucus, and our line-up was: a. Patrick Rosenthiel, a consultant for National Popular Vote, whom some of you saw at the LWVFL convention in Orlando. b. Cecile Scoon, Co-President of LWVFL, who made a presentation about Amendment 4, Returning Citizens. c. Brad Ashwell, Florida Director of All Voting is Local Action, who discussed voter suppression bills. The presentations were excellent and well received by the legislators and staff in attendance. It created a buzz throughout the Capital that helped open many doors as we met with 35 legislators over three days to urge them to cosponsor the National

By Daniel Lishansky, Chair, National Popular Vote Committee The National Popular Vote Interstate Compact bill (HB 67) has been introduced once again in the Florida House. Thanks goes to Rep. Mike Gottlieb (Broward) for sponsoring it again this year. Sen. Victor Torres (Orange) will again sponsor the bill in the Senate. So why is this year different from all other years? This year we have acknowledgement and momentum. Two years ago, there were a total of three co-sponsors for the bill. Last session there were 10 co-sponsors. This session we expect more than 30 co-sponsors. This momentum will be evident on Oct. 18, when House Minority Leader Fentrice Driskell (Hillsborough) hosts a Lunch & Learn for the House Democratic Caucus and National Popular Vote will be front and center. In addition, LWVFL Co-President Cecile Scoon will speak about Amendment 4 (returning citizens) and our third speaker will discuss the myriad

By Daniel Lishansky, NPV Chair  Kathleen Crampton and I met in the middle of August with Representative Michael Gottlieb, and he will again be introducing the National Popular Vote bill in the Florida legislature. Members of the National Popular Vote committee will be meeting with almost every Florida legislator in the Palm Beach County Delegation before presenting at the Delegation meeting on November 1 in Greenacres. Most have shown an interest in hearing about National Popular Vote. Florida is one of only nine states that has refused to hold a committee hearing on the National Popular Vote. Our conversations with legislators are focused on encouraging them to hold just such a hearing on the bill. If you haven’t seen it already, check out the newly refreshed website of Floridians for National Popular Vote at www.FloridiansForNPV.com or by scanning the QR code below. It contains excellent information about National Popular Vote,

What is the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact? No one wants the Loser to win and that is entirely possible with the Electoral College. In 2006, the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact was introduced. It’s an elegant solution to ensure that the candidate with the most votes in all 50 states wins the presidency. Learn how this works without a constitutional amendment. Register to learn more HERE and join us on September 6 from 1-2 PM.

ASK US ABOUT NPV — IT’S GAINING TRACTION By Daniel Lishansky, NPV Chair  At the June 2023 League of Women Voters U.S. Convention in Las Vegas, guess what was adopted as one of the two leading issues for the National League? Yes, National Popular Vote! It was the talk of the convention, with workshops, presentations, and lots of chatter by officers, delegates and staff. The National League is moving at full speed with National Popular Vote. Its plan is part of a multi-decade effort, the goal of which is election of the U.S. President and Vice President by popular vote. This was not a minor feat. During the previous three years, there was a lot of behind-the-scenes work by LWVFL, especially by current Co-Presidents Cecile Scoon and Debbie Chandler. And Kathleen Crampton, from LWVPBC and Chair of Floridians for National Popular Vote, was instrumental in guiding everyone along. The result was

TRAINING, PRESENTATIONS, ADVOCACY HAVE BEGUN By Daniel Lishansky, NPV Chair  The National Popular Vote committee is moving ahead with training of our members, arranging for presentations, and contacting legislators to educate them about the National Popular Vote and encouraging them to co-sponsor the interstate compact at their next session. Two presentations were scheduled for the beginning of July. One for our League’s Voter Rights Coalition as part of its regular meeting (July 6), and one for the League of Women Voters of the Space Coast (July 13). The Space Coast League has not had a National Popular Vote Committee and is hoping that exposure to the presentation will encourage participation. We also have four new training videos about the National Popular Vote. While two are more in-depth than most people are looking for, the other two focus on important and little-known aspects of national campaigns. They are each less than