Jay Newton: Save our democracy by changing presidential election to popular vote

To The Daily Sun,

Support for electing the president by national popular vote is increasing among all voters regardless of party, ideology or age, according to the August 2022 PEW Research Center poll.

This is because most voters believe the principle of one person, one vote is essential to the future vitality of American democracy. A constitutional amendment is not required to have a national popular vote for president. We can repair our broken election system with the National Popular Vote agreement. NationalPopularVote.com

The current electoral system in the United States has awarded the presidency to candidates that did not have the support of the majority of U.S. voters. This was the case in both the 2000 and 2016 elections, which were won by George W. Bush and Donald Trump, respectively.

The National Popular Vote compact will guarantee the presidency to the candidate who wins the most popular votes in all 50 states and D.C. This means candidates will need to convince all of America that they should be president, not just the voters in a few “battleground” states.

When passed by states with at least 270 electoral votes, the national popular vote winner will win the presidency every time. The bill has already been passed in 16 states representing 195 electoral votes; only 75 more are needed to fix the way America elects our president and help protect democracy.

Norm Silber has told me that he does not support the National Popular Vote agreement.

This year, he and fellow Republicans including Gov. Chris Sununu passed a bill, SB 418, making it harder to vote in NH and supported redistricting they expect will create congressional representation that does not match the will of NH voters. It’s time to vote them out.

Vote Democratic up and down the ballot in November to save our democracy.

Jay Newton

Gilford