We’ve got more stories about the Electoral College versus the National Popular Vote (NPV) movement than you can “shake a stick at.” (Or, “at which you can shake a stick” for the Grammar Nazis.) NPV would erase NH and make it meaningless. HB 1531 attempts to prevent that.
The bill proposes to make it illegal to share the state’s popular vote count until after the electors have fulfilled their constitutional duty.
What if a state such as New Hampshire simply refused to release its popular vote totals, as has been proposed? Or what if states were to release totals for winning candidates, but didn’t report any total for the losing candidates?
National Popular Vote proponents will claim that such proposals violate federal reporting requirements, but they don’t. Those federal laws cannot require a state to turn in popular vote totals.
After all, the state wasn’t constitutionally required to hold a popular vote in the first place. The state legislature could have appointed electors directly instead, as sometimes occurred in our country’s early years.
I like the idea, but I’m not sure it has the juice to sell Mike or Mary Maple-Syrup. It’s wonky. But therein lies opportunity. The State’s Democrat majority will scoff and then kill it, and we can use that to talk about how they want to end New Hampshire’s political relevance forever.
From First to Last
New Hampshire Democrats have proposed erasing New Hampshire by joining NPV. It is a move that would end our First in the Nation status and presidential election relevance altogether. The primary system would change to meet the new standard. Large states and big cities would own the primary calendar. In the Northeast, tiny states would be ignored. Roping in a majority of voters in Boston, or better yet, New York City would attract all their time and money.
We can actually do nothing and have that happen. NPV is fishing for any combination of states to get to 270.
Liberal millionaires and billionaires (who fund this) need enough states to hit 270 for NH to cease to matter in any future presidential election. No president will ever come here. No campaign will hire staff or rent office space. National media will never again have need to set foot in the Granite State.
No ad buys, no full hotel rooms, no buying gas, engaging in commerce, filling up hotel rooms, or eating at restaurants.
The economic consequences are significant. But not more so than the political ones. Or, the Constitutional question. Can NPV even pull of what it claims? Can states force their electors to cast ballots based on the popular vote of the nation – or at least all the states involved?
A Tenth Circuit Court ruling, suggests no.
“Article II and the Twelfth Amendment provide presidential electors the right to cast a vote for President and Vice President with discretion. And the state does not possess countervailing authority to remove an elector and to cancel his vote in response to the exercise of that Constitutional right.”
… the states possess only the rights expressly delegated to them in Article II and the Twelfth Amendment.”
In other words, NPV is meaningless and should come under a constitutional challenge if it reaches 270. Until then, we get to remind voters in New Hampshire that there is no political opposition from within the New Hampshire Democrat party or among any of its members of Congress to prevent national Democrats and NPV from suppressing our votes and making our state meaningless.