I feel I should respond to Nancy O’Hagan’s letter to the editor on March 20 (“Popular vote treats every voter equally everywhere“). O’Hagan indicates that we need a nationwide vote for the chief executive. If Maine joins the so-called national popular vote compact, the citizens of our state will surrender their voice in selecting our president to the states with larger populations such as New York, California and Illinois. Our nation’s founders knew the pitfalls using a national vote for the president and specifically avoided it.
O’Hagan was right on one claim: People vote. But I think she does not understand that the people vote to assign delegates that, in-turn, equal the electoral votes for that state. Maine has four. The candidate that wins the state vote will be awarded those delegates. This process will not change if Maine joins the NPV compact. However, instead of the delegates (or electoral votes) being awarded to the candidate that wins Maine, they will go to the candidate that wins the most populated states. For example, let us imagine that the NPV is in effect today. If on election day Biden wins 90% of the vote in Maine, he should be awarded the four electoral votes. However, if Trump wins the national popular vote (50.1% of the total vote of all fifty states), then Trump will be awarded Maine’s electoral votes even though Biden clearly won in Maine. The compact rules direct that all states in the compact give their electoral votes to Trump.
As most informed citizens know, our country is not a true democracy. It is a representative republic. Another definition of true democracy is two lions and a lamb deciding on what to eat for dinner. I choose the representative republic.
Michael Buhelt
Gray
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