When is a system like an electoral college useful, if at all?
Problem 1: Suppose the countrywide popular vote is for A, but nearly all (or anyhow some) of the states in the Compact prefer B. In that case those Compact-states would, by obeying their own rules to make A win, be acting against their own interests!
Problem 2: The compact will have no effect until and unless enough states join it to get a clinching majority.
Problem 3: Why should a state S join such a Compact?
So there is no motivation for any state to join this compact – joining can hurt it but can never help it, whereas by not joining it still gets to "free ride" and gain all the advantages it could have gained by joining!We suggest to the reader, that if states have no motivation to join, then they won't join! And then (by problem 2) the Compact will never have any effect! Result: NPV's whole proposal is a dead dog.Don't believe this? OK, here's why CA governor Schwarzennegger said he vetoed CA's inclusion in the Compact: "I appreciate the intent of this measure to make California more relevant in the presidential campaign, but I cannot support doing it by giving all our electoral votes to the candidate that a majority of Californians did not support." (You'd think after the biggest state in the USA dodged the compact for precisely the reason we said, the NPVers might listen to us and adopt the simple fix we propose. Just in the interests of their own survival. You'd think.)Problem 4: If a state outside the compact adopts a new and weird voting system (not in the list above), it can still unilaterally destroy the compact!
Simple Solution to all 4 problems: Make the compact cast a bloc vote for the popular vote winner among the compact's member-states' combined population only, and make it do so no matter how many (or few) states have joined the compact. This way, nonmembers cannot free-ride. Hence states are motivated to join the compact. Further, the compact, even well before it has a clinching majority will often be able to throw the presidential election due to the power of its solid bloc vote. Even with only a few states joining the Initial Compact, it will be an 800-pound gorilla that presidential candidates will pay immense attention to. Nonmember "shirker states" who fail to unite with that gorilla, will do so at their peril; presidents are not likely to pay much attention to the shirkers. Hence the motivation to join, will be major.
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