Victory Alert: NPV Dies in Senate Comittee
Yesterday, afternoon Senator Adam Ebbin (D-30, Alexandria) asked that SB 1101, the National Popular Vote Compact, be struck from the Privileges and Elections Committee docket, all but assuring its death in the Senate and, most likely, in the General Assembly this session. This is the second consecutive year he has withdrawn the bill from the committee, which his party dominates with nine of the 15 seats.
The NPV would, in violation of the Virginia Constitution, bind the commonwealth’s presidential electoral votes to the winner of the national popular vote no matter who wins Virginia. It also violates the U.S. Constitution, which clearly established a federal system of independent state decisions. It also violates the amending process by bypassing the required super majority congressional vote and super majority state legislative ratification votes.
Ebbin’s motion likely signaled that he didn’t have the needed committee votes thanks to an outpouring of grassroots opposition that flooded committee members’ e-mail boxes as it did last year, and goes to prove that no matter the party or the issue, if citizens speak up, politicians will listen! Thank you for your responses to our alerts on this issue and thanks to our phenomenal coalition partners for their tremendous work.
The Senate defeat also doesn’t bode well for the House version. That bill (HB 1933), introduced by Delegate Mark Levine (D-45, Alexandria), which barely escaped the House last year due to some parliamentary maneuvers before also dying in the Senate, may not even be heard. The Left in that chamber does not want to face down its rabid base if it dies there on a recorded vote.
Still, let’s not take any chances and keep up the pressure! We are one step away from forcing the Left a step further backward, which also will have ramifications for the NPV movement nationally – defeating it without passing even one chamber in a state where its party has total control of the legislative and executive branches of government. Click here to go directly to the House Privileges and Elections Committee’s HB 1933 comments page and encourage it to defeat the bill and preserve the Electoral College system.