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Keywords

National Popular Vote Interstate Compact (NPVIC), voting, Compact Clause, plain text meaning, congressional approval, constitutionality, proportional electorate systems, Rank Choice proposal

Abstract

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the Peopl to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. In 1786, a group composed of ex-military and farmers sought to take over the seat of government in Massachusetts in a coup later known as Shays’s Rebellion. This distressing event occurred because the people in rural areas of Massachusetts felt that they were not properly represented by the “elites” in more densely populated areas. Before that group, small, radical groups of Colonists led a rebellion against Britain’s vast empire for mainly the same reasons. The phrase “no taxation without representation” is undoubtedly an idiomatic motif of the Colonists’ purpose. This quain but markedly gruesome rebellion later became known as the American Revolution. After both events had come and gone, the victors took measures to ensure appropriate representation for their constituents. Likewise, both incidents required radical changes to their respective structures of government. Given that Americans have always gone to great lengths to seek adequate representation, it is unsurprising that the national popular vote movement exists.

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