[EM] The NPVIC would allow approval voting

[Jameson Quinn]

Here's a blog post I
wrote<http://metapolitics.quora.com/Why-the-Electoral-College-is-a-good-thing-%E2%80%94-and-its-coming-end-is-even-better>about
the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact and approval voting.
Basically, my argument is that the NPVIC as written (now 61% of the way to
taking effect) would already allow individual states to use approval voting
in presidential elections. Here are the key passages:

The chief election official of each member state shall designate the
> presidential slate with the largest national popular vote total as the
> “national popular vote winner.”
> ...
> “statewide popular election” shall mean a general election in which votes
> are cast for presidential slates by individual voters and counted on a
> statewide basis


Obviously, there would be legal challenges if this were to happen. But a
simple, direct reading of the text provides no reason to believe such
challenges would prosper.

I think that the recent addition of NY state to the NPVIC is a good news
hook for talking about approval voting.

Cheers,
Jameson

(note: I wrote the blog post for an intended audience that already believes
that Bush was a horrible president. No intent to offend anybody here who
disagrees with that.)
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