Someone brought this up in the thread about the next POTUS. I thought it merited discussion, especially after the curious reversals of 2000 and 2016.
Rutherford B. Hayes and John Quincy Adams were elected in similar "reversals."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Popular_Vote_Interstate_Compact
It's unconstitutional, for one thing. It says explicitly in Art. I, Sec. 10 that no state may, without the permission of Congress, enter into any compact with another state or states. For another thing, I very much doubt, as I stated in the other thread, that my own state's 10 democratic electors would ever in a million years vote for a republican, even if they had to according to this compact.
You are absolutely right and I have posted on other fora on that issue. I knew instinctively that the compact idea just didn't seem right. People thought it was because of the deprivation of the will of voters in that particular state. There is no bar to a State Legislature overriding the judgment of its people in picking presidential Electors. That is why the Supreme Court stopped the recounts in 2000. But compacts are, without Congressional approval a no-go.
If we abolished the EC, what exactly could replace it? How could a direct, national, popular vote work?
There would have to be a runoff. People would not like the result. Also the "action" in a presidential campaign would shift from swing states Ohio and Florida to the suburbs of New York City, Los Angeles, San Fransisco, Seattle and Chicago. Why? Because voters in those areas "swing" locally but cannot swing their states. Those areas, in other words are vote-rich but don't dominate their states. Their votes suddenly become important since the popular vote would be determinative. Could be very annoying where I live, 40 km. from New York City.
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