Now that Congress has certified President-elect Trump’s election as president, it’s time to correct an egregiously mistaken state policy.
In 2009, our Legislature passed a bill, signed into law by then-Gov. Chris Gregoire, including our state in an effort to get around the Constitution’s electoral college method of electing our president and vice president.
That effort is called the “Interstate National Popular Vote Compact.” Washington state’s 2009 mistake can be found by looking up RCW 29A.56.300. It will become effective once states with 270 total electoral votes join the compact.
It’s not yet in effect, but when it is, our state will award its electoral votes to the national popular vote winner for president and vice president, regardless of who actually won our state’s presidential vote.
Just guessing, but the 2009 legislative majority might have actually believed a theory put forward in John Judis’ and Ruy Teixeira’s 2002 book “The Emerging Democratic Majority,” that the Democratic Party’s candidate for president would always and forever win the national popular vote.
That legislative majority back then forgot that, in politics, nothing ever stays the same.
Last year, Trump/Vance comfortably won the national popular vote by 2.3 million votes, while Harris/Walz carried our state by a 57 percent majority.
Can you imagine the cranial explosions in our state if our state’s 12 electoral votes were awarded to Trump/Vance despite them having lost our state’s presidential vote?
Our Legislature should repeal the misbegotten RCW 29A.56.300 this session.
Jim McEntire
Sequim