UMRA member Mark Bohnhorst retired in 2016 from the Office of the General Counsel, where he provided legal advice and support to the U’s scientific research mission for 24 years.

Kathryn Pearson’s outstanding UMRA Forum presentation on November 24 about the 2020 elections ended with a brief exchange about Electoral College reform. As it happens, I have been immersed in this subject for the last four years and would like to offer this update.

Reforming the Electoral College by action at the state level has been an active topic of discussion and advocacy for 20 years. The lead proposal since 2006 is an interstate compact promoted by National Popular Vote (NPV). 

The compact would go into effect when states with a total of 270 electoral votes have joined. Currently, states with a total of 196 electoral votes have done so. NPV hosted a webinar, “270 by 2024,” in mid-November to discuss prospects for success. With the recent change in composition of the Supreme Court, there is a danger that use of the initiative to enact the compact could be struck down. The issue turns on the definition of “legislature” in the Constitution.

Voter Choice Ballot

My advocacy has been for “state-by-state” measures that would take effect immediately. In 2017, then-State Representative Paul Thissen and then-Congressman Keith Ellison agreed. A national group, Making Every Vote Count, endorses this approach and has come up with a new proposal, Voter Choice Ballot (VCB). 

Under VCB, individual voters are given the choice of casting ballots for the winner of the nationwide vote. This might be particularly attractive to independent or moderate voters—whom Kathryn Pearson indicated are a large slice of the electorate. In addition, VCB does not change the state winner-take-all basis of appointing electors (which the “legislature” may “direct”), and use of this initiative is far less subject to constitutional challenge. 

The Library on the Making Every Vote Count website has articles I have written on several topics, including the constitutionality of the initiative, the 20-year history of the reform movement, race and the Electoral College, and prospects for change.  

—Mark Bohnhorst, chair, Presidential Elections Team at Minnesota Citizens for Clean Elections