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National Popular Vote Movement Gets Pushback From Conservatives
By: Karen Kasler | Statehouse News Bureau
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A group is working to put before Ohio voters a constitutional amendment requiring the state’s presidential electoral votes go to the winner of the national popular vote. But a conservative group is pushing back on that idea.
Democratic candidates and groups around the country have suggested abolishing the electoral college.
But Rob Walgate with the conservative Ohio Roundtable said it’s a political move to prevent what’s happened only five times – when the candidate who won the popular vote lost the electoral vote and didn’t become president.
“It’s not like it’s happening every election. It happened in 2016. They’re afraid it’s going to happen again in 2020, I guess. I think they’re doing it to move turnout, to raise money,” Walgate said.
Walgate and Republicans say a national popular vote would mean presidential candidates would campaign only in major media markets.
But Democrats say the electoral college gives an outsize voice to “battleground states” – which in recent years included Ohio.