One of the bills Abigail Spanberger signed this month will have Virginia joining the National Popular Vote Compact.
Virginia isn’t exactly dropping out of the Electoral College. But now that it’s joining the National Popular Vote Compact, those 13 electoral votes could go to whoever wins the popular vote nationwide, even if Virginia votes the other way.
"We’ve had five presidents come into office without winning the most votes nationwide," says Scott Drexel of National Popular Vote. "We have a system where every vote for president isn’t equal from state to state for president. And of course, we have presidential campaigns that focus all of their attention on battleground states."
He says the people who wrote the Constitution did not plan for a winner-take-all system. That emerged in the 19th century. Trent England from Save Our States says the new system would violate the purpose of the Electoral College.
"It would turn the whole country into a plurality, winner-take-all competition where you would encourage more candidates to run because you could win with a small, regional plurality," England says.
The deal doesn’t kick in until states in the Compact add up to a majority of Electoral College votes. Now that Virginia is on board, they’re at 222 electoral votes. So, they’ll need 48 more before it takes effect.
