Weekly Opinion Editorial
NPV
COMPACT IS LOOSE!
By
Steve Fair
Once again the National Popular Vote Compact (NPV)
has reared its ugly head in Oklahoma. State
Representative Lee Denney, (R-Cushing) has filed a bill to have Oklahoma join
ten(10) states and the District of Columbia in an agreement to cast our presidential
electoral votes for the candidate who wins the majority of the popular
vote. Former legislators Rob Johnson and Don Armes, both
Republicans, are promoting it. During
their tenure in the legislature, both Armes and Johnson filed several bills
promoting the NPV.
This week, Johnson released the results of a poll
where he claims 79% of Oklahomans favor National Popular Vote. The poll was supposedly taken January 19th
and 20th by Public Policy Polling interviewing 893 people statewide
across all party affiliation voters. Johnson believes Oklahoma’s participation in
the compact will result in the Sooner state getting more attention in the
presidential race and that the Electoral College hurts turnout and is unfair
because in four presidential races in American history the candidate that lost the popular vote won the electoral vote. But there are more than just a few fishhooks
in the NPV Compact.
First and foremost, if Johnson’s proposal would
have been in place in 2008 and 2012, Oklahoma’s electoral votes would have been
counted for President Obama. That’s
right- the reddest state in the country would have cast 7 electoral votes for
Obama even though the state voted overwhelmingly Republican. How is that right? It isn’t right and it doesn’t make any sense.
Second, let’s talk about the poll. Polls are only as good as the pollster and Public
Policy Polling is known for leaning Democrat and supporting progressive
campaigns. PPP is a North Carolina
company founded by Dean Debham. They are
known for conducting unconventional polls like asking voters if they approve of
God, and polling Republican voters asking if President Obama would be allowed
to enter heaven if the rapture happened today.
It is a known fact that poll results can be manipulated and how polling
questions are worded and presented can definitely skew the results. There is no way that nearly 80% of Oklahomans
approve of NPV, especially if those polled had been told if the system had been
in place in 2012 Oklahoma’s electoral voters would have went to Obama.
Third, why do we once again have to fight a battle
over NPV in Oklahoma? It seems every
year some clueless Republican after a nice junket to a fancy resort will drink
the NPV Kool aid and file a bill to align Oklahoma with the liberal
states. Opposition to the NPV has been
in the OKGOP platform for years. Why are
Republicans promoting this? Perhaps they
are unaware the ten states in the compact are liberal. California, New York, Washington and Illinois
are among the ten- all large liberal states. The Chairman
of the organization behind National Popular invented the lottery scratch card
and made a fortune promoting state lotteries.
The NPV crowd has plenty of money and that is why they can afford to
hire former legislators to lobby their friends on NPV.
Fourth, NPV is a real threat. It will not go away. Each year, they make some progress toward
that goal of 270 and when they hit it, Republicans will have no chance of
winning a presidential election. The ten
states currently on board with the compact comprise 165 electoral votes or 30%
of the total. They need 270 votes for
the compact to go into effect. They are
at 60% of their goal.
America’s founding fathers
put into place a system to indirectly elect the president using the Electoral
College. The brilliance of the plan is
that it gives a disproportionate amount of influence to ‘small’ states in the
union. Oklahoma is a small state. NPV would do exactly the opposite of what its
advocates claim it would do. It would
dilute Oklahoma’s influence and make us completely irrelevant in the
presidential election process. Contact your state representative and state
senator today and tell them to oppose the NPV compact bill.
