Campaign
National Popular Vote
Common Cause is working to ensure everyone's vote truly counts in presidential elections.
National Popular Vote & Electoral College
We deserve presidential elections where every voter has an equal voice and where the winning candidate must engage with all 50 states. Common Cause is pushing to fix the broken Electoral College.
In several recent presidential races, the candidate who won the popular vote lost the election. And in every presidential election, candidates are forced to focus their attention on only a handful of swing states, essentially ignoring voters everywhere else. The winner-take-all Electoral College system that produces this anti-democratic process must be changed, so that voters in all 50 states have a say in choosing our president.
Here is how our National Popular Vote & the Electoral College campaign will fix this: the Constitution allows states to decide how they award their electoral votes, so if enough require their votes to go to the winner of the nationwide popular vote, we could fix the Electoral College’s problems without needing to amend the Constitution. This National Popular Vote Compact will not take effect until states with 270 electors—a majority—joined in. But we are closer to that than you might think: 16 states and the District of Columbia have already signed on, providing 205 electoral votes of the needed 270.
What We’re Doing
Take Action
Petition
Stop letting candidates who lose the popular vote win the presidency
We urge states across the country to join the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact – and stop letting candidates who lose the popular vote win the presidency.
Your financial support helps us make an impact by holding power accountable and strengthening democracy.
Updates
Blog Post
Advancing Democracy In The States: 3 Big Wins!
Blog Post
Is “one person, one vote” really controversial? The case for the National Popular Vote
The flaws in the Electoral College are increasingly clear—but the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact may hold a new answer to the outdated system. With 15 states and Washington DC signed onto the plan, that answer may be closer than ever.
Blog Post
As Electors Meet, It’s Time to Fix the Electoral College
With today's vote electing Donald Trump, two of our last three Presidents will have been chosen by a minority of voters.
Press
News Clip
Washington Post: Nebraska lawmakers vote against Trump-fueled push to change electoral vote system
“Until yesterday, this wasn’t a discussion at all, and then suddenly it blew up, and several of our legislators that are process-oriented will take a skeptical line,” said Gavin Geis, executive director of Common Cause Nebraska.
News Clip
Des Moines Register Opinion: The Electoral College is nonsensical. The popular-vote winner should always be the president.
As described by a prime advocate, the nationwide, 1.5-million-member Common Cause organization, it is "an agreement among states to guarantee the presidency to the candidate who receives the most popular votes in all 50 states and the District of Columbia."
Press Release
Voting Rights Protections Must Remain the Priority as Electoral College Reform is a Hollow Bulwark Without It, Common Cause Tells Senators
Today, Common Cause is emphasizing to every U.S. Senator that voting rights protections must remain their priority and that any reforms to how electoral votes for president and vice president are counted are no substitute for the Freedom to Vote Act and the John R. Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act. The letter to Senators emphasizes that some legislatures across the country are already introducing new bills to make it harder for Americans to have a say in choosing their elected leaders. The new bills come on top of last year’s voter...
