Most Americans Want the Popular Vote for President
A 2007 survey by the Washington Post found that 72% of respondents supported a national popular vote for president. Other polls in specific states have found 69% support in the large and urban state of California and 75% in the small and rural state of Vermont. These results have been consistently high for decades and span across political parties, different ages, and different demographic and ethnic groups.
The National Popular Vote plan has been embraced by prominent leaders from both major political parties, including former Congressmen John Anderson (R-Illinois and Independent presidential candidate) and former Representative John Buchanan (R-Alabama), former Senator Birch Bayh (D-Indiana).
Newspapers that have endorsed the National Popular Vote plan include the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Sacramento Bee, Chicago Sun-Times, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Denver Post, the Columbian, Wichita Falls Times, Fayetteville Observer, Boston Globe, Hartford Courant, and the Tennessean.
Legislators have responded to the strong public support for popular election of the President. More than 400 state legislators have co-sponsored legislation to enact the National Popular Vote and more than 700 others have voted for the bill. It has passed a total of 21 legislative chambers in a period of under two years and has already been fully enacted in four states.
Back in 1969, 80% of the members of the House of Representatives voted for popular election of the President, which had the backing of Presidents Nixon and Johnson as well as the AFL-CIO and the Chamber of Commerce.
The time has come to give Americans what we want.
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In Gallup polls since 1944, only about 20% of the public has supported the current system of awarding all of a state's electoral votes to the presidential candidate who receives the most votes in each separate state (with about 70% opposed and about 10% undecided). The recent Washington Post, Kaiser Family Foundation, and Harvard University poll shows 72% support for direct nationwide election of the President.
This national result, with majority support across parties, ages, and races, is similar to recent polls in closely divided battleground states: Colorado-- 68%, Iowa --75%, Michigan-- 73%, Missouri-- 70%, New Hampshire-- 69%, Nevada-- 72%, New Mexico-- 76%, North Carolina-- 74%, Ohio-- 70%, Pennsylvania -- 78%, Virginia -- 74%, and Wisconsin -- 71%; in smaller states (3 to 5 electoral votes): Delaware --75%, Maine -- 77%, Nebraska -- 74%, New Hampshire --69%, Nevada -- 72%, New Mexico -- 76%, Rhode Island -- 74%, and Vermont -- 75%; in Southern and border states: Arkansas --80%, Kentucky -- 80%, Mississippi --77%, Missouri -- 70%, North Carolina -- 74%, and Virginia -- 74%; and in other states polled: California -- 70%, Connecticut -- 74% , Massachusetts -- 73%, New York -- 79%, and Washington -- 77%.
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see www.NationalPopularVote.com
Most people know little or nothing about the Electoral College. Surveying the general public about it is almost like the pranksters who get people to sign petitions against "the suffraging of women " or to ban a complicated-sounding chemical compound that turns out to be water .
If people want to really understand some of this, they should check out http://www.saveourstates.com .