Conservative Action Project

February 10, 2020
Washington, DC
Signatures updated: 2/12/20

The defining features of the U.S. Constitution are checks on power—including the power of majorities. These include every provision of the Bill of Rights, other limits on federal power, and the separation of those powers among different branches of government. Another fundamental constitutional structure that checks majority power is the Electoral College.

The two-step, state-by-state election process used to select every President since George Washington sets a higher bar than a simple direct election. It forces national parties and campaigns to build broad coalitions, to consider the interests of many different groups of Americans, and to recognize the importance of states. It contains election administration and disputes within individual states. With the Electoral College, states can control their own elections and there is never a need for a nationwide recount.

Any effort to create a direct election would undermine these checks and balances. It would shift political power toward big cities and allow vote fraud in one part of the country to infect the entire election. All of these disastrous consequences would result either from abolishing the Electoral College outright or from hijacking it with the National Popular Vote interstate compact (NPV).

NPV is state legislation that changes how states select Presidential Electors. These states would ignore their own voters and select Electors based on the nationwide vote. In other words, NPV would hijack the Electoral College and force it to rubber stamp the popular vote result. This would create a de facto direct election.

Three liberal law professors developed the idea for NPV after Al Gore lost in 2000. Leftist megadonor John Koza, with support from Jonathan Soros (son of George Soros), launched the National Popular Vote organization in 2006. Koza continues to direct and fund the NPV campaign. He has bragged to the New York Times that NPV is an “end run” around the Constitution.

NPV only takes effect if joined by enough states that they control a majority of electoral votes—270 or more. So far, 15 states plus DC have passed NPV bills. These states control 196 electoral votes, which puts NPV 73% of the way to hijacking the Electoral College. NPV legislation is currently pending in Florida, Missouri, Virginia, West Virginia, and other states.

Conservatives must defend the Electoral College as a bulwark of constitutional federalism and republican governance. “Checks and balances” have not gone out of date. Neither have limits on majority power. The Electoral College worked exactly as designed in both 2000 and 2016 to prevent a collection of major urban areas from controlling the presidency. It rewarded the outreach and coalition building of the Trump campaign rather than the Clinton campaign’s preference to rile up its base in California while labeling broad swaths of Americans a “basket of deplorables.”

The Left’s most dangerous attack on the Electoral College is the National Popular Vote interstate compact. Conservatives must stop NPV in the states and educate Americans about the importance of structures like the Electoral College for the maintenance of liberty and good governance.


The Honorable Edwin Meese III
Attorney General
President Ronald Reagan (1985-1988)
Alfred S. Regnery
Chairman, Conservative Action Project
Chairman, Law Enforcement Legal Defense Fund
The Honorable Jim DeMint
Chairman, Conservative Partnership Institute
Member, US Senate (SC 2005-2013)
Ed Corrigan
Vice Chairman, Conservative Action Project
Executive Director, Conservative Partnership Institute
Rachel Bovard
Senior Director of Policy
Conservative Partnership Institute (CPI)
Tom McClusky
President
March for Life Action
Mary Vought
Executive Director
Senate Conservatives Fund
The Honorable Morton C. Blackwell
President
The Leadership Institute
The Honorable Colin A. Hanna
President
Let Freedom Ring, Inc.
The Honorable Matt Schlapp
Chairman
American Conservative Union (ACU)
Cleta Mitchell, Esq.
Partner
Foley & Lardner LLP
Myron Ebell
Director, Center for Energy and Environment
Competitive Enterprise Institute
Marjorie Dannenfelser
President
Susan B. Anthony List
The Honorable Bob McEwen
U.S. House of Representatives
Former Member, Ohio
Kelly J. Shackelford, Esq.
Chairman, CNP Action, Inc.
President and CEO, First Liberty Institute
The Honorable T. Kenneth Cribb, Jr.
Former Counselor
U.S. Attorney General
Lisa B. Nelson
Chief Executive Officer
American Legislative Exchange Council
William L. Walton
President
Council for National Policy
Noah Wall
Vice President of Advocacy
FreedomWorks
The Honorable David McIntosh
President
Club for Growth
Scott T. Parkinson
VP of Government Affairs
Club for Growth
Jenny Beth Martin
Chairman
Tea Party Patriots Citizen Fund
The Honorable J. Kenneth Blackwell
Chairman
Constitutional Congress, Inc.
The Honorable Tony Perkins
President
Family Research Council
Adam Brandon
President
FreedomWorks
The Honorable Becky Norton Dunlop
White House Advisor
President Ronald Reagan (1981-1985)
The Honorable Donald Paul Hodel
U.S. Secretary of Energy (1982-1985)
U.S. Secretary of Interior (1985-1989)
Lt. Gen. William G. Boykin (Ret.)
Executive Vice President
Family Research Council
L. Brent Bozell, III
Founder and President
Media Research Center
David N. Bossie
President
Citizens United
Michael Farris
President and General Counsel
Alliance Defending Freedom
Robert Alt
President & CEO
The Buckeye Institute
Anne Schlafly Cori
Chairman
Eagle Forum
Trent England
Executive Director
Save Our States
The Honorable Scott Walker
President-Elect
Young America’s Foundation
Floyd Brown
Chairman
America Fighting Back PAC
Eunie Smith
President
Eagle Forum
The Honorable James C. Miller III
Budget Director for President Reagan
Bishop E.W. Jackson
President
STAND Foundation, Inc.
Melissa Ortiz
Blogger/Administrator
DCBelleonWheels.com
Dr. John C. Eastman
Salvatori Professor, Chapman University Fowler School of Law
Senior Fellow, The Claremont Institute
Rod D. Martin
Founder and CEO
The Martin Organization, Inc.
Sherri R. Martin
Executive Vice President
The Martin Organization, Inc.
Haley E. Martin
President
The Martin Foundation
Guillermo J. Aragon
Chief Financial Officer
Martin Imaging, Inc.
Benjamin Nieuwsma
Founder and CEO
Navigo
Shawn Mitchell
Former National Chaplain
National Federation of Republican Assemblies (NFRA)
The Honorable Jerry Melvin
Former Dean
Florida House of Representatives
Christina Murphy Lusk
Campaign for the American Future
Darrell Henry
Executive Director
Western Caucus Foundation
Jeff Hunt
Director
Centennial Institute
Ron Robinson
President
Young America’s Foundation
The Honorable George K. Rasley Jr.
Managing Editor
ConservativeHQ.com
Mark Mix
President
National Right to Work
Dr. Jerome R. Corsi, Ph.D.
Founder and CEO
CorsiNation.com
Willes K. Lee
President
National Federation of Republican Assemblies
Roxanne Phillips
Member, Executive Committee
Council for National Policy
Jake Hoffman
President & CEO
Rally Forge
Peggy Dau
Representative
IranAliveMinistries.org
Andresen Blom
President
Hawaiian Values
Craig Dance
President / CEO
Champion Coach Inc.
Jack Park
Conservative Activist and Donor
Bob Carlstrom
President
AMAC Action
Seton Motley
President
Less Government
Annette Thompson Meeks
CEO
Freedom Foundation of Minnesota
The Honorable Donald J. Devine
Former Director U.S. Office of Personnel Management
The Fund for American Studies
Paavo Ensio
Chairman
Universal Minerals Group
Allen Hebert
President and Chairman
American-Chinese Fellowship of Houston
Lori Roman
President
ACRU Action Fund
Richard D. Hayes
Partner
Hayes Berry White & Vanzant LLP
Michelle Easton
President
Clare Boothe Luce Center for Conservative Women
Kay R. Daly
President
Coalition for a Fair Judiciary
Jeremy Cerone
CEO
EliteSafe Inc.
Dr. Carolyn McLarty
Republican National Committeewoman for Oklahoma
Republican National Committee
Amapola Hansberger
President
Legal Immigrants for America
Sean Noble
President
American Encore
Elaine Donnelly
President
Center for Military Readiness
Robert D. Thompson
Former Administrator
The Weyrich Lunch (1999-2016)
The Honorable Charles J. Cooper
Assistant Attorney General, President Ronald Reagan
Cooper & Kirk, PLLC
Lee Beaman
CEO
Beaman Automotive Group
Donna Hearne
CEO
Constitutional Coalition
Kelly Kullberg
Advisor, Spokesperson
American Association of Evangelicals
Norman Singleton
President
Campaign for Liberty
Joan Holt Lindsey
President
Lindsey Communications
Cindy Honcoop
State Director
Washington Eagle Forum
Barry Meguiar
President
Revival Outside the Walls
Jay Mount
President
MDS Communications
Ron Pearson
Executive Director
Conservative Victory Fund
Mr. C. Preston Noell III
President
Tradition, Family, Property, Inc.
Penna Dexter
Co-host
Point of View Radio
The Honorable Penny Pullen
Former Illinois State Representative
Illinois General Assembly
Gary Marx
President
Madison Strategies LLC
Augusta Petrone
Presidential Elector, 2001
New Hampshire
Sal Russo
Co-Founder and Chief Strategist
Tea Party Express
Dr. Frank Wright
President & CEO
D. James Kennedy Ministries
Rebekah Gantner
Executive Director
Eagle Forum Education & Legal Defense Fund
Ed Martin
President
Phyllis Schlafly Eagles
Ambassador Henry F. Cooper
President Reagan’s Chief Defense and Space Negotiator
Former Strategic Defense Initiative Director
John F. Tate
President
America’s Liberty PAC
Michael C. Maibach
Distinguished Fellow on American Federalism
Save Our States
The Honorable Mike Hill
Representative
Florida State House
Kevin Freeman
Founder
NSIC Institute
Bradford Wilson
Educator
Princeton University
Dr. John E. Stapleford
Chair
Caesar Rodney Institute
Terrence Scanlon
Retired Chairman and President
Capital Research Center
Ralph A. Rebandt II
Lead Pastor
Oakland Hills Community Church
Greg Schaller
President
John Jay Institute
Ryan P. Williams
President; Publisher, Claremont Review of Books
The Claremont Institute
Randy M. Long
Founder
Long Business Advisors, LLC
The Honorable Peter J. Thomas
Chairman
The Conservative Caucus
Robert Keith Fischer
Meeting Coordinator
Conservatives of Faith
William W. Pascoe, III
Board Member
Tea Party Patriots Action
The Honorable Gary L. Bauer
President
American Values

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