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Oregon Could Be 15th State to Join Anti-Electoral College Effort

Oregon's seven Electoral College votes could one day be awarded to a candidate who did not win the most votes in Oregon.

I Voted sticker on a shirt.
(Shutterstock)
By Chris Lehman

Oregon is close to becoming the 15th state to signal that it will award its Electoral College votes to the presidential candidate who receives the most votes nationwide.

On a 37-22 party line vote, the Democratic majority in the Oregon House sent Senate Bill 870 to the desk of Democratic Gov. Kate Brown, who has indicated her support.

If the bill is signed into law, Oregon would join 14 other states and the District of Columbia in the National Popular Vote compact.

That could mean that Oregon's seven Electoral College votes could one day be awarded to a candidate who did not win the most votes in Oregon.

The compact will only take effect when enough states have joined to collectively award a majority of votes in the Electoral College.

The threshold to reach that majority is 270. According to the National Popular Vote organization, jurisdictions representing 189 Electoral College votes have joined the compact so far. If Oregon joins, the effort would be seven votes closer.

If the compact had been in effect in 2000, Al Gore would have been elected president instead of George W. Bush. If it had been in place in 2016, Hillary Clinton would be the current president.

Democrats said their vote in support of the bill was not about trying to get back at Republicans for having won the presidency without winning the popular vote in 2000 and 2016. They said the compact would mean a GOP candidate would win if the situation was reversed.

Instead, said Rep. Allisa Keny-Guyer, D-Portland, the compact would make Oregon more relevant during presidential campaigns. "The Republican presidential candidates write Oregon totally off, and the Democratic candidates take Oregon for granted," she said. "So we are just relegated to being a spectator state."

Republicans said the current system has worked well for more than 240 years. Some hinted that awarding the presidency to someone who does not win the Electoral College in the conventional manner could lead to violence.

"We cannot, in a time as divisive as this, put at risk the peaceful transfer of power of the presidency of the United States," said Rep. Mike McLane, R-Powell Butte. "And I fear that's what this will do."

The debate over whether to join the National Popular Vote compact has become somewhat of a tradition in the Oregon House. Some veteran lawmakers, including House Speaker Tina Kotek, D-Portland, have voted for it four times.

"I always enjoy the National Popular Vote debate," said Kotek, before opening up the voting system for what could be the final time on this topic. In previous years, the legislation has died in the Senate because Senate President Peter Courtney, D-Salem did not support it.

This year, with the majority of his caucus in favor of it, Courtney relented. The bill originated in the Senate and narrowly passed there in early April.

Brown "looks forward to signing the legislation," said her Deputy Press Secretary Nikki Fisher, who added that the bill still has to go through a standard legal review process before the governor will sign it.

(c)2019 The Oregonian (Portland, Ore.)

 

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