The Washington State House did not pass any of the National Popular Vote Plan bills, and it is now too late. SB 5628 has passed the Senate in February 2008, but it never made it through the House Rules Committee. Democrats have a majority in the House and could have passed it if they had wished to.
Ughhh!!!
This bodes ill for NPV, since Washington state is a bastion of liberalism.
You said it, Joel. Ugh. This sad performance by the US House of Representatives really makes one lose any vestigial trust in the good will and honest representation of the government. Why don’t they pass this so that we might all take one step closer to proper democracy?
Ack. The inadequacies of society should be far less tangible.
I serve as an attorney in the WA ST. House, but this comment is personal.
SB 5628 did get out of Rules Committee to the House Floor, but the majority decided not to run the bill. I beleive the arguments below help explain why the vote was not taken.
You cannot have a national election without first establishing common voting requirements. Felon voting? Registration dates? Early ballot access?
No state would ever try or get away with having different voter eleigibility in different counites of the state.
If the states are going to count thier votes in common, they must have been cast in a common election system. This is not a fatal flaw in the plan, the compact could be amended to require that such a common plan for voting be a part of the compact.
Allen Hayward