My Take: National popular vote movement bad for Michigan, bad for America
In Michigan, Democrat legislators are pushing forward with House Bill 4156. This would enter our state into the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact: a bid to radically transform the way we elect the president of the United States.
If enacted in Michigan and adopted by enough other states, this effort will disenfranchise Michigan voters by forcing electoral votes to whichever presidential candidate earns the most votes nationally, not the most votes in the state of Michigan.
For example, If Candidate A wins the popular vote nationwide, ALL of Michigan’s electoral votes would be given to Candidate A — even if Michigan voters supported Candidate B by a wide margin. This would drown out the voices of both our urban cities and rural farming communities.
Democrats have tried for years to foist this on the people of Michigan. In previous years, the leadership of Representatives, such as Ann Bollin (former Chair of the Committee on Elections) was instrumental in blocking this radical and misguided effort. As a former township clerk, I feel privileged to be Vice Chair of the House Committee on Elections. In this role, I continue the fight to defend our Electoral College. But the attacks are getting stronger — particularly with a slim Democrat majority.
So far, 15 states and the District of Columbia have adopted National Popular Vote legislation. With 195 electoral votes in hand, the backers of this questionable movement only need an additional 75 votes to reach the 270-vote presidential threshold. This is a dangerous threat to our Republic that must be stopped.
Our Founding Fathers created the Electoral College to ensure the interests of all states and regions are considered when electing the president — not just big cities and population centers like New York and California. Our largest cities in Michigan are much smaller than those in other states.
The system they developed — the one our country has used for more than 230 years — prevents larger states from dominating the process. This ensures the President represents a broad range of interests and has a motive to govern the entire country, not just the most populous areas.
The Electoral College incentivizes presidential candidates to campaign in a diverse range of states, not just those with the highest population centers. Candidates must appeal to voters across the country and address a variety of issues that are important to different regions. Michigan voices — urban, suburban and rural — should be heard. The current system prevents the neglect of certain areas in favor of others.
The National Popular Vote Interstate Compact threatens to upend this delicate balance and throw presidential elections into disarray. It will likely require states to prematurely accept the election results other states are reporting, even if those results are known to be incomplete due to other problematic policies like priority voting or ranked-choice voting.
In the event of a very close election, National Popular Vote would require a full recount in every state — a monumental task that would be next-to-impossible, given the fact that every state has different standards on when and how it conducts recounts. Without a governing body or other procedures in place to resolve differences, National Popular Vote member states would have no choice but to turn to the courts to settle disputes. We do not want to relive the hanging chad debacle of 2000 or the post-election trauma of 2020.
The National Popular Vote movement is bad for Michigan and bad for America. It’s unfair to voters outside of large population centers, bucks the Constitution, and serves to further erode confidence in our elections. Michigan legislators should soundly reject this misguided proposal.
— State Rep. Rachelle Smit represents portions of Allegan, Barry, Eaton, and Ottawa counties in the Michigan House of Representatives. She previously served for seven years as Martin Township Clerk.
This article originally appeared on The Holland Sentinel: My Take: National popular vote movement bad for Michigan, America
