Facts matter in the national popular vote debate

OPINION:

As the old saying goes, everyone has the right to their own set of opinions, but not to their own set of facts.

TV commentator Laura Ingraham was the latest pundit to ignore this maxim when she confused the admittedly complicated issue of the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact — a reform that would empower conservatives in Flyover Country. So far, the compact has passed 15 states totaling 189 of the 270 electoral votes needed to be elected president.

Let us look at the facts involving the compact.

It does not abolish the Electoral College. Rather, this constitutionally consistent reform ensures 270 electoral votes go to the presidential candidate who receives the most popular votes nationwide. The Electoral College remains completely intact. Period.

States that join do not lose power; they gain power. Under the current method, each state’s voters have a direct voice in allocating only their own block of electoral votes. Under the national popular vote the voters in states that have joined the compact gain a direct voice over the disposition of 270 electoral votes, the magic number in electing a president.

Small towns and rural areas are not silenced or sidestepped. The current state-by-state, winner-take-all method used by most states of awarding electoral votes — remember the Electoral College is the system, not the actual voting method — puts the vast majority of Americans on the political sidelines in presidential elections. Right now, conservative voters who live outside the 12 closely divided battleground states, where candidates spend virtually all of their time and money, have almost no voice.

It is simply false to claim red state America would be disenfranchised by big cities. Numbers do not lie: Rural areas and the 100 largest cities each contain one-sixth of America’s voting population. So, big cities and rural areas would be equally important under the compact, which would require candidates to campaign for ever vote in every state.

President Donald Trump himself has often pointed out that he would have done very well if the 2016 campaign had been run across all 50 states. Remember, he defeated Hillary Clinton by more than 832,000 popular votes across the 12 battleground states. This would have been replicated across the country had the voters of other states actually mattered.

The National Popular Vote Interstate Compact is not an end run around the Constitution. Article 2 of section 1 leaves the method of allocating electoral votes up to the individual states in any way or manner they see fit. Moreover, the voting method used by most states to award electoral votes is not part of the Constitution, nor was it debated at the 1787 Constitutional Convention or even mentioned in the Federalist Papers.

Last but certainly not least, this is not a liberal conspiracy to deny Mr. Trump re-election. Just look at Nevada, where the Democratic governor vetoed legislation enacting the compact. Moreover, it is also completely different from what the left and Democratic presidential candidates have proposed.

It is one thing to oppose this reform on the facts. It is something altogether else to masquerade misguided and ill-informed opinions as facts.

• Dennis Lennox is a political commentator and public affairs consultant from Michigan. Follow @dennislennox on Twitter.