Will NPV Be The Real Republican Revenge Vote?

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by: Colorado Pols

As the Colorado Sun’s John Frank reports, organizers of a ballot initiative to overturn a law passed by the Colorado General Assembly this year aligning the state with a National Popular Vote Compact to ensure the winner of the national popular vote wins the presidency say they have enough signatures to qualify for the ballot:

The deadline to submit petitions is Aug. 1, and Coloradans Vote, the issue committee challenging the new law, reports it has authenticated more than 150,000 voter signatures using state records. More signatures are still pouring into the office. To make the ballot, the group needs verified signatures from 124,632 registered voters…

The group expects to collect about 200,000 signatures, enough to provide a cushion to account for the upwards of 30% that may fail validation. The secretary of state’s office will certify the signatures once submitted.

If certified for the ballot, it would be the first time since The Great Depression that Colorado voters would decide whether to repeal or reaffirm a law approved by the General Assembly and signed by the governor. In 1932, voters repealed a law that increased the tax on oleomargarine.

Because the National Popular Vote Compact that Colorado joined with this legislation does not yet have enough states on board to trigger its provisions, halting its implementation while voters decide has no real effect. It’s worth noting also that Nevada and Maine recently killed their own bills to join the NPV states, and it’s unlikely that enough states would join in time to affect the next election.

With that said, the arguments in support of the Electoral College status quo are compelling to many small state voters not otherwise ideologically inclined, and Republicans broadly see the bill as direct political retaliation for Trump winning the presidency–this despite the fact that Colorado conservatives have themselves argued against the Electoral College in the past.

Politically, we have always been clear that National Popular Vote repeal was the more effective vehicle for Republicans to organize around than recalls either of Gov. Jared Polis or individual lawmakers. The Polis recall petition drive is certain to fail, and legislative recalls don’t work for organizing voters statewide ahead of a general election. Of all the options Republicans have to strike back against Democrats after their historic 2018 losses, a campaign to repeal NPV could be the one that pays the most long-term dividends.

When all is said and done, will this be the one “overreach” of 2019 Republicans are able to undo?

We have to concede that’s a real possibility.

16 thoughts on “Will NPV Be The Real Republican Revenge Vote?”

2Jung2Die says:

July 15, 2019 at 11:15 am

I get the premise of this diary, and know there are D and U skeptics about NPV. If you're one, just know that bull has been slung and will continue to be slung. You can arm yourselves against the bull by reading up on some of the most frequent objections on the NPV "Answering Myths" page: https://www.nationalpopularvote.com/answering-myths

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davebarnes says:

July 15, 2019 at 1:40 pm

I love the Electoral College.
I think it has a beautiful traditional campus.
Its graduates have been some of the best and some of the worst politicians.
And, the admission process is the ultimate pay to play. SAT scores are ignored.

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1. Voyageur says:
  
  July 15, 2019 at 1:43 pm
  
  Yeah, but its cheerleaders are all non-binary they\them types. Who wants to see them in short skirts?
  
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  1. deathpigeon | they/them says:
    
    July 17, 2019 at 3:39 am
    
    Why are you like this? Like, for one, what's actually wrong with enbies in skirts? For another, you do know that male cheerleaders exist and there's nothing at all wrong with that? Finally, uh, why is it that the only purpose of cheerleaders seem to be, to you, oogling them in short skirts?
    
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    1. notaskinnycook says:
      
      July 17, 2019 at 8:20 am
      
      DP, figure it out. V likes to needle people. As long as you keep rising to the bait, he'll keep making you a target. Don't bite on it and he'll get bored and move on to someone else.
      
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      1. Curmudgeon says:
        
        July 17, 2019 at 8:31 am
        
        Wise words.
        
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        Voyageur says:
        
        July 17, 2019 at 8:38 am
        
        Did your lips move when you read them, Curmy? Tee hee.
        
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      2. Pseudonymous says:
        
        July 17, 2019 at 9:05 am
        
        It's not needling; it's cruelty. Also, it's not the job of the people being shit upon to acquiesce to the bully who's doing it. Aspiring to make yourself small enough that someone else becomes the target of an oaf's impotent rage seems a sad thing to ask.
        
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        Curmudgeon says:
        
        July 17, 2019 at 9:36 am
        
        Pseudo, after some time, I've accepted that MJ has been right all along. Consider the source, consider the motivation, and with that context, you can then ignore it.
        
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        Pseudonymous says:
        
        July 17, 2019 at 10:15 am
        
        Oh, I don't see Voyageur's posts, so I'm not troubled by them at all. That doesn't mean that his outrageous behavior is something one need just accept.
        
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        mamajama55 says:
        
        July 17, 2019 at 11:01 am
        
        Indeed. Leave the bait lie.
        
        On the substance: It's a mildly funny concept that the Electoral College would have cheerleaders; historically, those would all be slaveowners, as the Electoral College was put into place to mollify slave-holding states that their relatively few white voters and large 3/5 of a person non-voting slave populations would still get the same Senate representation as the large non-slaveholding states.
        
        And no one wants to see slaveowners in short skirts…or MAGA hats.
        
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      3. deathpigeon | they/them says:
        
        July 17, 2019 at 11:37 am
        
        I'm not about to let transphobic bullshit go unchallenged.
        
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        mamajama55 says:
        
        July 17, 2019 at 11:54 am
        
        V's gender issues are not your problem, and challenging his statements won't let you challenge transphobic bullying.
        
        Almost anyone else on here is capable of a reasoned argument. All you'll ever get from V is gaslighting, escalation, practice in logical fallacies, and endless aggravation.
        
        Let it go.
        
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        deathpigeon | they/them says:
        
        July 17, 2019 at 12:07 pm
        
        Fine.
        
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    2. Voyageur says:
      
      July 17, 2019 at 8:28 am
      
      Sorry, you're right. College cheerleaders are the second least sexist institution in America, trailing only that exemplar of enlightenment, Hooters!
      
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JohnInDenver says:

July 15, 2019 at 7:56 pm

I am barely old enough to have watched and appreciated ANY of the GE College Bowl episodes, as it ended in 1970.

So I'm wondering — Will there be a revival of the GE College Bowl show featuring the Electoral College representatives? Who will be the opponent be D&D's College of Lore? or maybe Terry Prachett's Unseen University?

Seriously, I don't know of another office in the United States which does not have a "majority rule" for all those represented by the office holder. Why that should not happen with the Presidency is a matter of established practice, based on a view of state loyalties and factions.

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