Michigan Democrats gave further momentum to a drive to elect the president according to the national popular vote when they passed a key bill out of a committee in the state House on a party-line vote on Tuesday. The development makes Michigan the third state in recent weeks to take action on this front, though the measure must receive approval from the full House as well as the state Senate (both of which are controlled by Democrats) before it can head to Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer for her signature.
The bill under consideration would add Michigan’s 15 Electoral College votes to the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact, under which member states would collectively award their electoral votes to the winner of the national popular vote. Importantly, the compact would only come into force once states with a majority of electoral votes have joined.
The 17 current members (which also include Washington, D.C.) now have 205 of the 270 electoral votes needed to activate the compact; Michigan’s entry would increase that figure to 220. With Republicans typically opposed to the compact, its ultimate passage will likely rely on Democrats winning power in several more states. That could happen by 2028, as there’s a tough-yet-real path to approving the compact over the next few years, as illustrated in the map at the top of this story (click here to enlarge) and in this companion spreadsheet.
This bill’s advancement in Michigan comes just weeks after Democratic-led drives in Minnesota, which enacted a law adding its 10 electoral votes to the compact, and in Nevada, which passed the first part of a multi-year effort that would contribute the state’s six electoral votes as well.
Stephen Wolf
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