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Visitor poll — Should we change how we elect the president?

Do you support replacing the Electoral College with a national popular vote for president?

A self-selected poll of site visitors, not a representative survey of public opinion. Only totals are shown publicly.

Choose your response

Results so far

2 responses
Support100% · 2 votes
Oppose0% · 0 votes

A democracy that counts us all

Every vote. Equal weight.

The presidency belongs to all of us. Let’s replace the Electoral College with a national popular vote, where every ballot counts equally—wherever you live.

Explore the case for change ↗Start with the basics ↓
ONE NATION. ONE COUNT.
PRESIDENTIAL BALLOT
THE PEOPLE
ONE PERSON 1 = 1 ONE VOTE

A principle for every voter. Whatever your party.

A simple idea. A stronger democracy.

City or countryside. Red state or blue state. Your vote should count the same.

01 / The case for change

One office. One equal say.

The president represents the whole country. We believe the way we elect one should reflect that.

01

People choose the president.

A candidate can receive the most votes nationwide and still lose. A national popular vote would make the national vote count decisive.

The rule & the real examples ↗

02

A state line shouldn’t set your influence.

Every state receives two electors for its senators, plus its House seats. This gives less populous states more electors per resident. Equal ballots offer a clearer principle.

How electors are allocated ↗

03

Give every campaign a reason to listen.

Winner-take-all rewards winning competitive states. Under a national count, an extra vote in any state would add equally to a candidate’s total. That is the incentive reformers want.

Explore winner-take-all ↗

Our position: replace the Electoral College. The reasons above combine documented rules with an argument about democratic fairness.

02 / Understand the rules

Your ballot takes a detour.

Today, voters choose slates of electors. Those electors cast the votes that formally elect the president.

538

Total electors

270

Votes needed to win*

48 states and D.C. use winner-take-all. Maine and Nebraska assign two electors statewide and the rest by congressional district. [1]

*A majority when all 538 electors are appointed. If no candidate wins a majority, the House chooses the president, with one vote per state delegation. [2]

Try it yourselfIllustrative example

A small shift. All the electors. One hypothetical state.

1,000,000 voters.10 electors.Two candidates.

Candidate A 49% · Candidate B 51%

40%50%60%

THE STATE’S 10 ELECTORS

Candidate B gets all 10 electors. Candidate A’s 490,000 voters receive none of this state’s electors.

All valid ballots are counted. Winner-take-all determines whose slate of electors is appointed. At a tie, state law determines the outcome.

03 / Origins & today

A choice made in 1787. A question for today.

The delegates in Philadelphia debated competing ways to choose a president. Their compromise reflected the politics and assumptions of their time.

On July 17, the Convention rejected direct popular election and retained legislative selection. A committee proposed a state-based elector system on September 4; delegates then revised it before signing the Constitution. [8] [10]

The choices on the table

OptionWhy consider it?The concern or compromise
Let the national legislature chooseLawmakers could evaluate candidates and make a collective choice.Morris and Wilson warned that a president chosen by Congress could become too dependent on it. Legislative intrigue was another concern. [8]
Let voters choose directlyMorris and Wilson supported popular election as a way to give the president an independent base of support.Some delegates doubted voters’ knowledge of distant candidates and feared regional voting or large-state dominance. Madison also raised regional differences in voting rights and slavery. [8] [9]
Use specially appointed electorsThe eventual choiceA temporary body could select the president outside the national legislature, with electors meeting separately in their states. The final Constitution let each state legislature determine how its electors were appointed. It blended population and state representation, while retaining a House fallback if no candidate had an electoral majority. [10] [12]

Which reasons still apply?

A comparison from this site’s reform perspective. Modern conclusions below are our analysis, grounded in the cited history and rules.

Still relevant

An independent president

Presidential independence from Congress remains a sound goal. A direct national election could also give the president an independent electoral mandate. This goal does not uniquely require an Electoral College.

Changed conditions

Knowledge across a large country

Nationwide news, campaigns, and digital communication greatly expand access to information about candidates. Misinformation and manipulation remain serious concerns. Better access weakens the argument that voters need a separate group of local notables to evaluate national candidates.

Changed role

Independent elector judgment

Electors generally act as pledged party representatives. In 2020, the Supreme Court held that states may enforce an elector’s pledge. That practice differs from Hamilton’s vision of electors exercising independent candidate judgment. [13]

A continuing value debate

States and regional interests

The original formula combined House representation with two electors for each state’s senators. [12] Defenders value this state-based structure. Reformers favor equal individual votes for a national office. A national popular vote would leave equal state representation in the Senate intact.

A rejected premise

Power tied to enslavement

The 13th Amendment abolished slavery; later amendments expanded constitutional voting protections. [14] Preserving political power derived from enslavement cannot justify an election rule today.

Our assessment

The goals of an independent presidency and trustworthy elections still matter. We support a national popular vote because it can preserve electoral independence from Congress while giving every presidential ballot an equal contribution to the result. Reform still needs clear rules for counting, recounts, and disputes.

Reading the record: Madison’s notes report the Convention debates; Hamilton’s essay advocates ratification. They document arguments and disagreements, rather than a unanimous founding theory.

04 / The evidence

More votes doesn’t always mean a win.

Compare the national popular vote with the electoral votes actually cast in three elections.

Official election results

Different winners

543,895 more votes. A different winner.

Al Gore led the national popular vote. George W. Bush won the Electoral College and the presidency.

Al Gore48.38%

50,999,897 votes

George W. Bush47.87%

50,456,002 votes

Other candidates: 3.75% of the vote.

Electoral vote

Out of 538 · 270 needed to win

Al Gore266
George W. Bush271

Bush elected president

One elector abstained.

One District of Columbia elector abstained; the remaining electors voted for the two major candidates.

View 2000 results ↗

These are historical results under the rules then in place. Different rules could change turnout and campaigning; these comparisons do not predict the outcome of an alternate election.

Candidate colors identify the two data series, not political parties.

One voter in a small town. One voter in a big city. The same say in who leads us.

THE PRINCIPLE BEHIND REFORM

05 / A path forward

Change is possible. The route matters.

Two approaches seek a national popular vote. Only an amendment would abolish the Electoral College itself.

CHANGE THE CONSTITUTION

A

A constitutional amendment.

Replace the Electoral College with direct election. The most common Article V route requires two-thirds of each chamber of Congress to propose an amendment, followed by ratification in three-fourths of the states.

38 states needed to ratify under today’s 50-state union

The challenge: a high threshold that demands broad agreement. An amendment must also define the new voting and counting rules.

Read the amendment process ↗

CHANGE HOW ELECTORS ARE AWARDED

B

The National Popular Vote compact.

Participating states agree to award their electors to the candidate with the most votes across all 50 states and D.C., once states holding an electoral majority join. The Electoral College would remain in the Constitution.

270 electoral votes represented to activate the agreement

The challenge: constitutional and implementation questions, including whether congressional consent is required, could lead to litigation.

Read the compact & legal analysis ↗

These are descriptions of reform mechanisms, not a claim that either reform has taken effect. Compact membership is not tracked live on this site.

06 / Good questions

Let’s talk about the tradeoffs.

A strong case for change should take serious objections seriously.

Wouldn’t big cities decide every election?

A national vote counts individuals, wherever they live. It gives a city ballot the same value as a rural ballot. Cities are not single voting blocs, and candidates could build coalitions across many places. Supporters of the Electoral College value its role for states. Reformers argue that the presidency should reflect voters equally. No system guarantees where campaigns will travel.

Does the Electoral College protect small states?

Small states receive more electors per resident because every state gets at least three. That is a real feature of the system. It does not guarantee that a small, safely partisan state will receive campaign attention. The reform argument is that all voters should have an equal role in choosing the president. Equal state representation in the Senate is a separate constitutional arrangement. [1]

What about close elections and nationwide recounts?

A very close national result could raise difficult recount questions. A well-designed replacement needs clear, consistent rules for audits, recount triggers, deadlines, and resolving disputes. That is a design challenge reform must answer. The current system can instead make the presidency turn on a very narrow result in one state, as it did in 2000. [3]

Would this automatically help one political party?

No party is guaranteed the most national votes. In 2024, Donald Trump won both the popular and electoral votes. In 2000 and 2016, the winners differed. This site supports the rule that the candidate with the most votes should win, regardless of party. Campaigns and turnout would adapt to new rules, so simply replaying old totals is not a forecast.

Is “most votes” the same as a majority?

No. A plurality means more votes than any other candidate; a majority means more than half. A national popular vote can be designed around a plurality, a runoff, or another method of finding majority support. The compact uses the largest national vote total. Abolition by amendment would require choosing the replacement’s rules, including how to handle ties and multi-candidate races. [7]

Can the president abolish it with an executive order?

No. Abolishing a system established in the Constitution requires constitutional change. The president has no formal approval role in the Article V amendment process. The compact is a different strategy: it changes participating states’ allocation rules rather than removing the Electoral College. [6]

A fairer rule starts with a conversation

Make your voice count.

Understand the evidence. Talk about the tradeoffs. Ask your elected officials how they would make every presidential vote count equally.

01

Get the facts.

Read the sources behind this site.

03

Ask for a better system.

Find your federal and state officials.

Copy this page’s address: https://www.everyvoteshouldbeequal.com

Share the case

Check the work

Facts, with a paper trail.

Federal records for rules and results. Convention debates and ratification arguments for history. Original compact text and congressional research for reform.

Verified November 10, 2026.