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Democrats Eye Electoral College Reform Post-Midterms
· Confirmed
In Short: After a sweeping midterm victory, Democrats are eyeing reforms to the Electoral College, with a focus on the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact (NPVIC).
Democrats eye affordability, oversight as Congress returns after election shakeup. CBS19
The NPVIC, already approved by 18 states and Washington, D.C., would award electoral votes to the national popular vote winner, regardless of state-by-state results.
As of now, the compact has 222 electoral votes pledged to it, just 48 short of the 270 needed to activate it.
According to a YouGov poll from June 2026, 56% of adults support electing a president by popular vote, not the Electoral College.
Democrats are particularly focused on adding four key states to the compact, which could push the total to 272 electoral votes.
Steven Rogers, a political-science professor at Saint Louis University, noted that Democrats have been focused on the Electoral College since 2016, when they won the popular vote but lost the Electoral College.
The compact could be activated if four additional states join, pushing the total to 272 electoral votes.
The NPVIC would require participating states to award their presidential electors to the winner of the nationwide popular vote once states representing at least 270 electoral votes have joined.
Once states holding the 270 votes needed to win the presidency have joined, the arrangement would effectively require a candidate to win the national popular vote to secure an Electoral College majority.
The compact could be activated if four additional states join, pushing the total to 272 electoral votes.
'It’s a very real possibility that enough states join this compact,' he said.
Background
The compact could be activated if four additional states join, pushing the total to 272 electoral votes.
Steven Rogers, a political-science professor at Saint Louis University, noted that Democrats were focused on the Electoral College after 2016, but that focus has waned in recent years.
What's confirmed
- As of right now, the electoral votes from the states that have already signed amount to 222 votes.
- The compact would only take effect once states representing a majority of electoral votes sign on, ensuring that the winner of the national popular vote becomes president.
- If these states join the compact, they would join the coalition and provide enough electoral votes to activate it.
- The possibility comes through the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact (NPVIC), an agreement that would require participating states to award their presidential electors to the winner of the nationwide popular vote once states representing at least 270 electoral votes have joined.
- That requirement kicks in once participating states hold an Electoral College majority of at least 270 electoral votes.
- Participating states would collectively deliver an electoral majority to the candidate receiving the most votes across all 50 states and Washington, D.C., including states that refuse to join.
- Next, they groan as Democrats gained enough power in enough states to complete their quest to make the winner of the popular vote – and not the Electoral College – the victor in presidential elections.
What's still developing
- A quick gander at left-leaning media today shows more than a little exuberance for obliterating the Electoral College—seen as impediment step toward securing the Left’s permanent power— once and for all.
- Moreover, Trump’s attempt to hold onto power on January 6, 2021 by sending a violent mob to stop the certification of the electoral votes could never have happened if the president were chosen by a simple majority.
- The win showed that in a wave, Texas can go blue, and with it, the second-largest state’s 40 electoral votes.
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- And somehow, despite this flagrant lawlessness, he had won more convincingly than ever before, winning not only the Electoral College but also, for the first time, the popular vote, thanks in part to unprecedented gains with Black, Latino, and young voters, particularly men.
- Harris urged Democrats to pursue changes such as expanding the Supreme Court, granting statehood to Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico, and reconsidering the Electoral College.
- While the plan faces likely legal challenges, such changes would affect the population numbers used to determine each state's share of representatives in Congress and votes in the Electoral College, redraw maps of voting districts for all levels of government and distribute federal funding for public services.
- Once a critic of the college, I began to change my own views years ago while writing Rage and the Republic and exploring the growing challenges to our constitutional system.
- The Democrats know that they are unlikely to attain a veto-proof majority.
- After the midterm elections, the Democrats are moving in for the kill.
- Below is my column in Fox.com on the move by Democrats to change the Electoral College before the 2028 election.
- "Look at our initiatives on universal childcare," she added.