During the 1788 New York ratification convention, anti-federalists opposed the new Constitution “for lack of a Bill of Rights”. Alexander Hamilton replied, “The Constitution is itself in every rational sense, and to every useful purpose, A BILL OF RIGHTS” (Federalist 84). Indeed, it was written to safeguard liberty against the worst form of tyranny, the tyranny of the majority, about which Plato, Aristotle, and Montesquieu warned, as did Tocqueville five decades later.

The American Left has always chaffed against the Founders’ “checks and balances” within Madison’s “compound republic” (Federalist 51). If the mission of the Left can be summarized, it is “Tear down every rafter in the Constitutional edifice until all the protections for minority rights and diversity of regions and political thought are gone.”

In 2006, wealthy Californians launched a cynical attempt to remove one of the load-bearing pillars of our Constitution – the Electoral College – by way of a National Popular Vote Interstate Compact. They aim to convince state legislatures to enact their Compact until states representing 270 Electoral College votes sign on – 270 being the number needed to elect a President. Already, fifteen entirely “blue” states have enacted the Compact for a total of 196 Electoral votes. Now, those Californians have convinced Sen. Adam Ebbin (D) and Del. Mark Levine (D) to advance their model legislation in the January 2021 legislative session in Richmond. There are five major reasons why this legislation must be defeated:

NPV COMPACT: A CONSTITUTIONAL ASSAULT

The NPV Compact is a Constitutional assault on three fronts. First, the State Compact Clause (Article I) reads, “No state shall, without the consent of Congress, enter into any Compact with another state…” The NPV cabal has not sought Congressional approval for its illicit state Compact. Second, the NPV leaders have not attempted to use the Constitution’s amendment process to achieve their goal, as they know thirty-eight states will never agree to this radical change to how we elect our Presidents. Third, the Framers considered three other ways to elect our President: election by Congress, by state governors, and by a national popular vote. All three were rejected in favor of an Electoral College design, which today is Presidential elections in each of our fifty states. Once agreed in Philadelphia, thirteen state popular ratifying conventions voted to adopt our Constitution as written, including an agreed-upon amendment process. The manner of electing our President was a keystone in the document’s architecture, one that must not be altered absent agreement with the requisite thirty-eight states. It was the states that created our Constitution; the Constitution did not create the states.

NPV COMPACT: CONTRARY TO THEIR OATHS “SACRED PROMISE”

The dictionary defines an oath as “A solemn promise, often invoking a divine witness, regarding one’s future actions or behavior.” Members of the Virginia legislature and the Governor affirm this oath of office: “I do solemnly swear I will support the Constitution of the United States, and the Constitution of the Commonwealth of Virginia… to the best of my ability, so help me God.” The NPV Compact is an unconstitutional state compact, an illicit attempt to change the Constitution without the votes of thirty-eight states.

Moreover, the Commonwealth Constitution provides that only Virginia residents are entitled to vote for Virginia’s elected officials. A Virginia Presidential Elector is a state official, elected by each of our state’s political parties. Yet the NPV Compact would mandate ignoring the will of Virginia’s voters in favor of the voters of other states, such as California, in determining for whom Virginia’s 13 Presidential Electors will cast their votes. Can Virginia legislators who support the NPV Compact affirm to the citizens who elected them that they are living up to their oath of office?

NPV COMPACT: AN AFRONT TO THOSE THEY REPRESENT

A Virginia legislator or Governor who supports the NPV Compact defies the Constitution and offers a civic afront to the citizens of our state. They are saying, “Regardless of how the majority of Virginians vote, I favor allowing citizens of larger states to decide how our Electors shall vote – none of whom elected me, none of whom pay my salary, and to none of whom have I given an oath of office.”

NPV COMPACT: ONLY NORTHERN VIRGINIA WILL MATTER

The population of “Northern Virginia” has exploded along with the US government and the companies that have the federal agencies as their clients. Today NoVA accounts for 67% of the state’s population! If the NPV Compact were in place, future Presidential candidates would visit only the major metro areas like New York, Miami, Houston, Chicago, LA County, and the DC metro area. Virginia legislators who favor the NPV Compact are saying to the rest of the state, “You will no longer matter.” Will downstate legislators of both parties allow this to occur?

NPV COMPACT: A FEDERAL GOVERNMENT TAKE-OVER OF PRESIDENTIAL ELECTIONS

In 2020, the vastly different and swiftly changing election laws of our fifty states whipsawed our national elections. Over thirty states require photo IDs to vote; the rest do not. Until 2020, only seven states had 100% mail-in voting. Now, officials are expanding mail-in ballots as well as unwatched “drop boxes,” and recounts abound! With Covid, we saw forty-four states change their voting laws and systems, often without public hearings or legislative votes. We are now witnessing the bitter harvest of election dysfunctions. Too many Americans today no longer feel that our elections are “fair and transparent.” This is a significant threat to our ability to govern ourselves with goodwill and a sense of democratic justice.

Now comes the NPV Compact to heap upon our public square even more disruption and division. The NPV holds that regardless of how your state votes, those cities and states with the most voters will forever rule this Nation. Nine US states are home to 50% of our citizens. LA County has more people than forty-one of our states! The “national popular vote” scheme aims to turn farmers and rural Americans into modern-day serfs, feeding the major cities that will forever rule them. Gone will be the quaint Iowa Caucuses and small-town New Hampshire primary. Want to alienate Americans more than they are now in this Republic – support the NPV Compact. And given that there are real differences among our fifty state voting systems, such as early voting, an NPV system would quickly lead to calls to nationalize our election laws and place Washington, DC in charge of the voting systems of our fifty states. In effect, this will place a future American President’s administration in charge of their own re-election machinery. Stunningly unwise!

The Left seeks to take down the US Constitution, pillar by pillar. And they understand that taking down the Electoral College is perhaps the swiftest way to take down the entire Republic.

Michael C. Maibach is a Distinguished Fellow on American Federalism at Save Our States, Managing Director of the James Wilson Institute, and the first American to be elected to public office under the age of twenty-one in US history. www.SaveOurStates.com

This article was originally published for the Thomas Jefferson Institute