01
States pass the Compact.
Each participating state passes the same model bill, pledging its electoral votes to the candidate who wins the most popular votes nationwide.
How it works
The mechanism in 30 seconds.
The Compact is not a constitutional amendment. It does not abolish the Electoral College. It is an agreement among states that uses the authority states already have under Article II.
02
It activates at 270.
Nothing changes for any state until participating states reach 270 electoral votes. Then it triggers automatically. Today: 222 of 270.
03
Popular vote wins.
From the next election on, the candidate with the most votes nationwide gets all the electoral votes from member states, which guarantees the presidency.
What changes, and what doesn't.
The Electoral College stays. State sovereignty stays. Article II of the Constitution already gives each state full authority over how it awards its electoral votes. The Compact uses the same authority that produced winner-take-all in the first place. No federal amendment needed. No state surrenders power.
Questions people ask first.
Doesn't this require a constitutional amendment?
No. Article II, Section 1, Clause 2 gives each state full authority to appoint electors however the legislature directs. Winner-take-all is itself a state statute, not federal law. The Compact uses the same Article II authority.
Does it abolish the Electoral College?
No. The Electoral College stays exactly as it is. The only thing that changes is how participating states cast their electoral votes.
What if a state changes its mind?
States can withdraw at any time outside a six-month window from July 20 of an election year through January 20 inauguration. The blackout window prevents post-election shenanigans.
What happens in a tie?
If two candidates tie in the national popular vote, each member state casts its electoral votes for whichever candidate won that state. Article III, Clause 6 of the bill text.
Has anything like this been done before?
Yes. Interstate compacts have been used for over a century for water, transportation, taxes, and crime. The Constitution explicitly authorizes them in Article I.
Where does the legal scholarship sit?
The compact's constitutional foundation has been argued in detail by Profs. Akhil Reed Amar and Vikram David Amar (Yale, UC Davis), Prof. Robert W. Bennett (Northwestern), and Justice Potter Stewart in Oregon v. Mitchell (1970). All conclude states already have the power.
The detail behind the mechanism.
Written explanation
The full case in plain English: why we need it, how it works, where it stands.
Read the explanation →Full bill text
Article I through V verbatim, with clause-by-clause commentary.
Read the bill →The Electoral College, today
How the EC currently works, and why states have the power to change it.
Read the explainer →