Wisconsin updates on NPV, the Electoral College, and federalism.
NPV status: introduced 2007-failed; introduced 2009-10 session-pending. AB 751 SB 549
Tweet Last week AB 751’s express trip from introduction on February 15 to a hearing on February 17 caused a stir in the Wisconsin papers and blogosphere. While Save Our States Director Trent England was on the ground there, I jumped into the cyber world to see how Wisconsin voters were responding to the...
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Tweet A big thanks to host Jim Schneider and the crew at Crosstalk radio for today’s discussion of the Electoral College versus National Popular Vote. It was my pleasure to be on the program and to talk with so many listeners from around the country. You can visit the Crosstalk website for a description...
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Tweet Last week was a lousy one for California-based National Popular Vote. After hiring six lobbyists and spending $80,000 lobbying in Madison, Wisconsin, they got Assembly Elections Committee Chairman Jeff Smith to schedule the bill for a hearing with less than two day’s public notice. And NPV’s lobbyists had convinced three Republicans to join...
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Tweet As I walked through the Wisconsin State Capitol last week talking with legislators and legislative staff, I saw the effects of citizens in action. Throughout the day, radio stations were alerting listeners about the bill. Several legislative staff members told me that calls and emails were coming in strong–and strongly against NPV. The...
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Tweet Mid-morning on Tuesday, two emails alerted me that Wisconsin’s NPV bill (AB 751) had suddenly been introduced and scheduled for a hearing before the Assembly Elections Committee—on Wednesday afternoon, the very next day. Could I come to Madison, one legislator asked, and help educate citizens and other lawmakers and perhaps testify at the...
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Tweet Wisconsin has made it onto NPV’s list of targeted states. Dave Zweifel’s Madison.com article, “Using popular vote to elect president is the way to go,” parrots one of the National Popular Vote organization’s most often-used (and faulty) arguments: that because the Electoral College motivates candidates to campaign in some states (“swing states”) more...
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Tweet The balance of power between state and national governments was one of the most contentious issues for the American Founders. The states were important historically, but also as a way to keep government close to the people and to divide government power into as many hands as practical in order to preserve liberty....
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