Last week I visited Juneau to talk with state legislators about National Popular Vote. NPV’s anti-Electoral College legislation (SB 39) has moved through two of their Senate committees in as many months. Because NPV says different things to different people, it’s always fascinating to pick up the echoes of their latest sales pitch. This was particularly true in Alaska.

NPV’s slogan is “every voter equal.” The claim is preposterous: their plan would shift more power to political consultants and pollsters to decide which voters to focus on and who to ignore. Nevertheless, NPV tries to convince legislators that their state’s voters will get more attention if NPV succeeds.

In the remote state of Alaska, NPV’s pitch is, essentially, how can you lose? Presidential candidates don’t visit now; maybe with NPV they’d at least send the vice presidential nominee’s spouse or something…. The first problem with this is, under any electoral system, Alaska really is remote. And it’s vast area is home to only 710,321 people. That’s less than half the population of Manhattan (consider that only 27 people would live in Manhattan if it had the same population density as Alaska).

While no presidential election process is going to put Alaska at the forefront of the campaign plan, the state very nearly became a focus in 2008–because of the Electoral College. Until the nomination of Sarah Palin, Barack Obama’s campaign believed it had a chance to win in Alaska. And then, having your governor nominated for vice president is hardly being ignored….

As I’ve pointed out on this blog before, the “swing state” effect of the Electoral College is actually a good thing for several reasons. And again, by wiping away state lines NPV only changes who gets attention, it doesn’t mean presidential campaigns will suddenly become omnipresent.

All this, however, is something of a sideshow. What really matters about any political process is whether it works. To know that, you need an idea of what government is for. NPV’s arguments imply that government exists to hold majoritarian elections after everyone watches the same number of campaign commercials. But perhaps government exists for some other reason, say, to protect individual rights. If that’s true, then things like stability, moderation, and sustainability begin to matter a lot more than where candidates hold campaign rallies.

NPV has catchy catch phrases. They whisper to Republicans that their plan will help Republicans, then whisper to Democrats that NPV will consolidate more power in urban areas. But in the end, what is certain is that NPV would radically alter the incentives in American politics and have cascading unintended consequences. As one Democratic legislator in Alaska told me: “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. And the Electoral College ain’t broke.”

On Friday, Alaska’s Senate Judiciary Committee heard the state’s National Popular Vote bill (SB 92). The measure actually already passed the State Affairs Committee with the support of Senators Linda Menard, Hollis French (who chairs the Judiciary Committee), and Albert Kookesh. (Watch the Judiciary hearing.)

Alaska, the largest state by landmass but with one of the smallest populations, is unlikely to be the key to a presidential contest under any conceivable system. But it stands to lose like every other state if NPV sweeps away the protections of the Electoral College. And at least under the current system, Alaska retains the possibility of becoming a swing state. It gets a boost in the Electoral College and, should it turn out to be evenly divided in a presidential race, campaigns will pay attention. Under NPV, it wouldn’t even have that.

NPV bemoans the existence of swing states and pretends that if voters were more mathematically equal, they would receive more equal treatment from presidential campaigns. There are two problems with that argument.

1. Swing states are actually beneficial. What makes a swing state? The answer is balance. While ‘safe states’ are places where most people already favor one candidate, swing states only swing because of their moderation. The current Electoral College system requires candidates to start with broad national support and then, as the campaign goes on, to focus in on the most evenly divided states. Far from being some nefarious plot, swing states pull American politics toward the center. You might say that the Electoral College, through swing states, recalibrates American politics toward the middle every four years.

One other point about swing states: divided government is accountable government. The Electoral College turns presidential elections into separate elections in each state. Where those elections will likely be the closest and most contested (in swing states) government is also more likely to be divided between both political parties. All of America benefits when our elections are properly scrutinized, and the current Electoral College system does this better than any system that just throws all the votes together for a single, national total.

2. NPV’s voter equality is superficial. According to NPV, it’s a moral failing of American politics when one voter sees more campaign commercials than another. Their slogan is “every voter equal,” yet NPV’s voter equality has nothing to do with the real world of politics. Candidates understand this. Even without an electoral college, political candidates “slice and dice” voters by geography and demographics to figure out who to “target” with campaign advertising and other activities. Campaigns will always allocate scarce resources unequally as they look for the most efficient way to win. The Electoral College simply forces campaigns to focus more on politically diverse areas.

The problem with NPV’s arguments (these and others) is that they simply skim the surface. There is no evidence that anyone involved with NPV has ever sat down and studied the history and theories of political systems (or even thought about such questions). They seem uninterested in history and real-world outcomes. Perhaps this is understandable, since the man who came up with the idea, John Koza, is a computer scientist best known for inventing the scratch-off lottery ticket and then convincing state governments to sell them to the public. While Koza’s state lotto monopolies have made him rich, the tale suggests either a lack of thoughtfulness or a dangerous (to other people) self absorption.  How much poorer are many poor Americans because of John Koza?

The most important question about any political system is will it tend to protect liberty and justice or not. The Electoral College helps to stabilize America’s political system in a way that makes liberty and justice possible.

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.

At the Constitutional Convention small states wanted every state to have an equal voice in the national government. Large states desired just the opposite—representation based on population would give them more power.

It was a compromise that created the U.S. Congress, where states are represented equally in the Senate but according to population in the House. That compromise not only broke the deadlock that threatened to derail the Constitution—it became the foundation for the unique American system of Federalism.

The national government was set up to provide national defense, manage foreign trade, and referee disputes between the states—in short, to provide the states with safety and commerce similar to the way the British Empire did for the 13 original colonies. The states were left to manage their internal affairs and to compete with one another; thus the states are sometimes referred to as our “fifty laboratories of democracy.”

Federalism fosters diversity by allowing groups of people in different states to manage their affairs differently, to innovate or remain the same, to address local needs. And by keeping government local, dividing it up, and making it compete, Federalism protects freedom.

The American system of states is not just unique—it has been uniquely successful. Federalism is an American invention worth preserving.