Maine Enacts National Popular Vote Interstate Compact, Joining 16 Other States

In April, Gov. Mills allowed legislation for Maine to join the National Popular Vote (NPV) Interstate Compact to become law without her signature. The compact is an agreement between ratifying states to award their electoral votes to the winner of the nationwide popular vote in each presidential election. The agreement would enter into effect once enough states joined the compact to represent the 270 electoral votes needed to win the presidency. Maine’s addition to the compact this year brings the compact’s total electoral college votes to 209 of the 270 needed for the compact to take effect.  

The NVP Compact is ultimately an end run around the Electoral College, a body established in the U.S. Constitution that selects the president about a month after a popular election is held in November. Using an interstate compact — which are contracts between states that allows them to collaborate on a specific policy issue, adopt standards, or work together on a regional or national matter — supporters of a national popular vote for the presidency seek to avoid the difficult and complicated task of amending the U.S. Constitution directly. 

The campaign originated after the 2000 election, which was the first time since 1888 that the winner of the national popular vote did not also capture the White House. The compact itself launched in 2006 and gained its first state adoption (Maryland) in 2007. To join an interstate compact, potential member states must enact the compact language into state law. 

After nearly 20 years of effort, the NPV Compact still remains 61 electoral college votes short of the 270 needed to go into effect. After four states adopted the compact in 2019, adoption has slowed as Minnesota’s adoption in 2023 and Maine’s in 2024 only added 14 electoral college votes in the past five years. And, realistically, getting to 270 would only be the first hurdle. 

Any attempt to enforce the NPV Compact would draw contentious lawsuits whose fate would ultimately be decided by the U.S. Supreme Court. Opponents argue that the NPV Compact would be unconstitutional through several provisions of the U.S. Constitution, including the Compact Clause and the Elections Clause. 

But as you can see from the map above, most of the states that have adopted the compact are blue states, and there aren’t enough Democratic-controlled trifectas left for the compact to take effect. Michigan is a recent Democratic trifecta that could add 15 electoral college votes to the compact’s effort, but legislation to adopt the NPV Compact failed to get a House vote after gaining approval from the Elections Committee in 2023. A citizen-initiated ballot measure is another option in states with reluctant legislatures, but no NPV Compact ballot measures have made it past the signature-gathering stage, including a recent attempt in Michigan. At the end of the day, this debate illustrates another unique aspect of the states and federalism in the United States. Interstate compacts have a long history of regulating interstate issues such as water rights, ports, and nuclear waste.

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This article appeared in our Morning MultiState newsletter on June 18, 2024. For more timely insights like this, be sure to sign up for our Morning MultiState weekly morning tipsheet. We created Morning MultiState with state government affairs professionals in mind — sign up to receive the latest from our experts in your inbox every Tuesday morning. Click here to sign up.