Law & Principles

Should Trump get 520 electoral votes?

November 11, 2024

Trent England

Before I moved to Oklahoma 10 years ago, I’d been here twice. The second time was to help defeat the National Popular Vote (NPV) interstate compact. Thankfully, OCPA, Save Our States, and many other constitutionalists won that fight. Other states—all of them “blue”—have passed NPV legislation. 

Those states control 209 electoral votes—short of the 270 needed to trigger the compact into effect. But why wait? After all, politicians pushing the compact claim that the popular vote is what ought to matter, even that it’s the only fair way to elect the president. Those politicians have a unique opportunity right now to show that NPV isn’t just a thinly veiled partisan ploy. 

Pro-NPV politicians in California, for example, could try to redirect their 54 electoral votes to Trump. After all, they adopted NPV in 2011. If they can’t choose the Republican electors, they could ask their Democrat electors to cast ballots for Trump and Vance. 

Every NPV state went for Harris. If those states followed through on their dedication to the national popular vote, they would give their 209 electoral votes to the Republican ticket. That would bring the Trump-Vance total to 520 electoral votes. Harris would receive 18 electoral votes (13 from Virginia, 4 from New Hampshire, and 1 from Nebraska’s second congressional district). 

Of course, NPV states won’t do this. The reason the compact has a trigger is so that NPV can advance under the radar, with little public scrutiny. Would California voters really like their electoral votes to go to Trump? Would the compact even work? I’ve written on its many technical defects. 

Oklahoma legislators deserve credit for standing up against the NPV campaign. The Electoral College is good for Oklahoma because it’s good for the entire country. By limiting how much power any one state, region, or collection of cities can have, the Electoral College forces both parties to be national. They must work to build vast coalitions, which is fitting and beneficial in our vast and diverse republic. 

[Photo credit: https://www.270towin.com/maps/NLbZ4. A version of this post was first published at SaveOurStates.com.]