Umm... hold on, did something good just happen?
this post was submitted on 15 Apr 2026
413 points (98.8% liked)
politics
31167 readers
1985 users here now
Welcome to the discussion of US Politics!
Rules:
- Post only links to articles. Title must fairly describe link contents. If your title differs from the site’s, it should only be to add context or be more descriptive. Do not post entire articles in the body or in the comments.
Links must be to the original source, not an aggregator like Google Amp, MSN, or Yahoo.
Example:
- Articles must be relevant to US politics and contain quality and original content. Social Media adjacent hosts like Substack are allowed, but ONLY if they tie back to a company/subsidiary. No personal or friend group blogs and no self-promotion. Articles should be worth reading. Clickbait, stub articles, and re-hosted or stolen content are not allowed. Check your source for Reliability and Bias here.
- Be civil, No violations of TOS. It’s OK to say the subject of an article is behaving like a (pejorative, pejorative). It’s NOT OK to say another USER is (pejorative). Strong language is fine, just not directed at other members. Engage in good-faith and with respect! This includes accusing other users of being bots or paid actors.
- No memes, trolling, misinformation, or low-effort posts/comments (including reposts). If you see posts like this that anger you, do not engage. Report, block, and live a happier life than they do. Any slap-fight is subject to comment removals. Fights full of rule violations will result in temporary bans to cool off.
- No manipulating votes via bots or alt accounts; this will result in permanent bans. Vote based on comment quality, not agreement. This community aims to foster discussion; please reward people for putting effort into articulating their viewpoint, even if you disagree with it.
- No hate speech, slurs, celebrating death, advocating violence, or abusive language. This will result in an account ban. Usernames containing racist, or inappropriate slurs will be permanently banned.
We ask that the users report any comment or post that violate the rules and use critical thinking when reading, posting, and commenting. Users that repeatedly have comments or posts removed, weaponize reports, or violate the code of conduct, will be banned.
All posts and comments will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis. This means that some content that violates the rules may be allowed, while other content that does not violate the rules may be removed. The moderators retain the right to remove any content and ban users. The reason(s) behind moderator action(s) are publicly available through the Modlog.
That's all the rules!
Civic Links
• Congressional Awards Program
• Library of Congress Legislative Resources
• U.S. House of Representatives
Partnered Communities:
• News
founded 3 years ago
MODERATORS
Not yet, but it's getting closer to actually happening. It is at a minimum not a bad thing.
Per the description in the post.
The compact takes effect when states representing a majority of electoral votes – 270 of 538 – pass the legislation and thus would determine the winner of the presidential contest. With Virginia, the compact now has 222 electors.
In other words, they need additional states with a combined total of at least 48 electoral votes to pass the legislation in order for it to take effect. So they're closer, but nothing has happened quite yet.
Right? I'm so thrown off.
load more comments
(18 replies)
If this passes, my bet is on the two party system becoming a distant memory very quickly.
This is what we need.
Come on America, despite the horrors we see now this is our chance to make things right and show the world that we actually intend to become the country we’ve always pretended to be. Let’s show the world how to rise up, break free of our shackles, and create a society that takes care of each other and our planet.
The cause behind the two party stranglehold is the first past the post system, not the electoral college or voting districts or anything like that (Duverger's law). Choosing the president by popular vote will be great, but it won't solve that.
I don’t think the popular vote compact would diminish the two parties.
As far as I understand it the compact says all the states in the compact will pledge their electoral college electors to the popular vote winner.
The popular vote winner is still just the candidate with the most votes nationally so all the incentives and structures that lead to two parties are still at play.
Third parties are suppressed in a winner take all system largely due to the spoiler effect, a smaller third party pulls votes from a larger party.
Voters would still be incentivized to vote for one of the two major parties witb the same logic as today, a vote for a third party has little chance of winning and so it largely has the effect of denying a vote to the major party you would most align with.
To be clear, I think the way we’ve arranged democracy in America is quite stupid and mathematically guarantees a duopoly of parties both of which become enmeshed with and captured by the donor class. A popular vote compact is better than the goofy electoral college, I just don’t think it really does anything to break the grip of the two party system.
load more comments
(5 replies)
Am I reading this correctly, 17 States have already banded together to end first-past-the-post voting for POTUS?
It does not end first past the post voting. If it went into effect it would essentially mean that the popular vote would determine the outcome of the presidential election, by forcing the electoral college results to match. The popular vote would still be first past the post.
load more comments
(3 replies)
Nah. This will solve electoral college in maybe 50 years.
We'll fix first past the post in maybe 250 years.
Maybe one day they'll be a democracy, but I don't think the ruling class will allow it
I hope it accounts for what happens if those States’ votes equal/exceed 270 at one time but then electoral fuckery occurs and they drop below that number due to their bullshit census tallies. Because we all know Repubs will pull it in a heartbeat.
Yeah, the only way the compact survives is if it would not have affected the outcome of an election. If it will have an effect, every red state in the compact will have legislation on the governor's desk by election day, calling for the immediate withdrawal from the compact, before the EC meets. That legislation will be wildly popular among the voters of those states.
load more comments
(2 replies)
My vote doesn’t matter as I’m from a state that has been democratic since I was born.
With the compact taking effect, your vote would matter again, every vote would matter.
well make sure it stays that way.
If this was ever going to pass, it would be during this time.
I’d love it so much if this were the case.
This compact is extremely unlikely to ever be enforceable. The ensuing court cases would make 2000 seem minor.
The Constitution gives the power to the states to appoint and direct their electors.
Supreme Court: "Not like that."
load more comments
(2 replies)
States determine their election laws. Including how they apportion electoral college electors. I'm not sure what the counter-argument to that is.
Not a legal argument but there is at least one state that already floated the idea of undermining the whole thing by refusing to publish their vote totals until all the electors are gathered to vote thereby preventing the popular vote from being determined ahead of time.
Then couldn't they just ignore that state in the tally? It's just a quick way to disenfranchise your own state.
load more comments
(1 replies)
load more comments
(9 replies)
view more: next ›