The National Popular Vote Takes Away the Vote and the Voice of Coloradans

The idea behind the National Popular Vote movement is said to provide equalization of votes and to make every individual’s vote equal. However, instead of making every vote equal, the National Popular Vote takes away the vote and the voice of Coloradans and gives our vote and voice to the large population centers such as Los Angeles, San Francisco, New York and Chicago. Our Founders studied the history of governments and realized that a national popular vote would give the most populated states like NY, MA, PA, NC and VA disproportionate power over more rural areas of our new country. Their goal was to avoid a tyranny of the majority which would discount the voice of the minority.

John Koza, chairman of the nonprofit National Popular Vote, said: “the plan would allow states to exercise their right under the Constitution: the power to decide how to award their electoral votes.” True, the U. S. Constitution does give each state the power to determine the allocation of their electoral votes. The state can choose to award all of their electoral votes to the states majority vote-getter called winner-take-all or, they can apportion the electoral college votes based on the percentage of votes received by each candidate. Either way, Colorado’s electoral votes go to the candidate(s) that Coloradans voted for. This process gives the state legislators power over its citizens to determine but it does not usurp our votes. They go to the person or persons for whom we voted. That’s fair, right?

We elect our state legislators to represent us however when they use their power to actually overturn the wishes (votes) of their constituent’s, that’s another thing. This is what Colorado’s legislators have done by passing the National Popular Vote law which contracts us to join an interstate compact to allocate Colorado’s nine electoral votes not to whom Colorado’s citizens voted, but to the national popular vote-getter. How is that fairly representing our voice (vote)? In my estimation, the National Popular Vote movement is one of the biggest voter suppression efforts in the history of our country.

Why do I believe this is voter suppression? Because, Colorado lawmakers give away our nine electoral votes to the national popular vote-getter, not to whom Coloradans voted. If a majority of Coloradans vote candidate A for president but candidate B wins the national popular vote, our votes go to candidate B. This means the majority of Coloradans could have their vote nullified and suppressed. How can that be said to make every vote equal?

Why do I believe this National Popular movement runs against their claim of “make every vote equal?” Because although they claim this, common sense tells us this assertion is incorrect. If a majority of a state’s citizens have their vote nullified because lawmakers decide to hand over electoral college votes to the national popular vote-getter, how does that make everyone’s vote equal?

Koza said, “Right now, what happens is that if you’re a Democrat in Texas or a Republican in California, your vote is essentially zeroed out. They count your votes and then they discard it.” Why is that any of his business? If I am a Republican and live in a blue state, I may run the risk of having my vote canceled out by a Democrat voter and vice versa. However, at the state level, that’s the way it’s supposed to work.

Koza’s idea that state boundaries would not matter is perplexing. In essence, he’s advocating that candidates need only campaign in heavily populated cities. Mid-west America, flyover country Americans, wouldn’t be heard at all. He believes that setting up a national popular vote process for electing our president would allow every vote in every state to be counted directly towards the presidential candidate the voter wants to see as president. That is a farce because not only would every voter not be heard by the candidates, their vote would not be necessary, leaving only the major population centers in America to determine who our president would be. Under the National Popular Vote, the minority’s vote and voice would no longer matter.