Make every vote count: a national popular vote would make sure no state is disadvantaged and every vote is equal.

• Author: Cardin, Jon S.
• Position: PRO - Viewpoint essay

Throughout our country's history, we have been vigilant in expanding democracy, empowering individuals and correcting injustices through the ballot box. We have remedied the disenfranchisement of women, African Americans and many others since the days of the Continental Congress. We have provided for the election of senators directly by individuals rather than by state legislatures. We have made confidential voting easier for the disabled and possible for the blind. We have worked to make the voting process more convenient, confident and transparent without compromising security.

Despite our progress, challenges to our democracy persist. The way we elect our president is flawed. When a candidate can win the popular vote but lose the election, and when he must spend 90 percent of his time in five states to win the election, the process has become un-democratic. A national popular vote (NPV) would fix many of the problems surfacing in the Electoral College, and is perfectly constitutional if done correctly.

The Electoral College is antiquated and anti-democratic. Once it protected smaller states from being ignored. Today, since only a few small and medium states are considered battleground states, candidates simply avoid spending time or money in the majority of small and medium states.

A candidate can win the popular vote but lose the presidency. AI Gore did so in 2000. A shift of 60,000 votes in Ohio in 2004 would have elected John Kerry, even though he lost the national popular vote by millions. Similar small changes in one or two states could have altered the winner of the election without affecting the popular vote many times in recent history.

An agreement among the states and the District of Columbia to use the popular vote numbers to determine their representatives to the Electoral College could change all this. The national popular vote policy would become binding once a critical mass of states enter to give it an electoral majority (270 votes).

If the electoral votes go to the national popular winner, candidates will be required to campaign in all states to guarantee the electoral votes of all the members of the compact, thereby holding an electoral majority. No state can be ignored, no matter how small, large, red or blue.

Our country's founders gave states exclusive and plenary control over the manner of awarding their electoral votes. A state can choose its electors based on a winner-take-all system, the votes in congressional...