News-Record.com

Little noticed during the 2007 General Assembly session was a bill (S 954) that would have North Carolina join the National Popular Vote effort.

No, we wouldn't be dropping out of the Electoral College. Rather, the state would join up with others in agreeing how to apportion its votes. Namely, all those in the compact would agree to give their electoral votes to the winner of the popular vote nationally.

The compact would go into effect only when enough states had signed up to swing the election one way or another.

(Need a more in-depth explainer? Here is the one-page explanation or, if you have more time, the eight-page explainer.)

Barry Fadem, who is heading the effort, was in the state last week and hopped on the phone to chat. He was joined by Jack Cozart, who is lobbying on behalf of the bill this session.

"It's a damned good time for me to be here in North Carolina," Fadem said, noting the enthusiasm over the presidential election. He pitched the popular vote effort as a way to keep the excitement up, rather than relegate North Carolina to the list of non-battleground states this fall.

(Of course, there are some who think N.C. can be in play regardless, but let's leave that for another day.)

"Nobody has been able to explain to me yet why a voter in North Carolina shouldn't be as important as a voter in Ohio," Fadem said.

So why not focus all this effort on amending the Constitution of the United States and the Electoral College provisions, which most folks view as kind of arcane anyway?

"You need a 2/3 vote of Congress and a 3/4 vote of the states," Fadem said. With the last major amendment push (the ERA) sputtering out in the 1970s and Congress in a state where they can barely agree on what to order for lunch, a constitutional amendment seems unlikely, he said.

New Jersey, Maryland and Illinois are on board. Hawaii is due to join of the legislature over-rides a gubernatorial veto, as expected.

Fadem said he was on his third visit to North Carolina in six weeks and was attempting to meet with every legislator. Since the bill has already passed the Senate, it is in the House's court.

The majority of the opposition came from Republicans in the Senate, where Democrats stuck together for the most part.

Fadem said that Republicans in other states had come on board but that he had seen the debate get shoved into partisan bunkers before.

"When it goes partisan, there's really not much we can do about that," he said.

Backers of a similar bill in the House include Rep. Pricey Harrison of Greensboro and Rep. Nelson Cole of Rockingham County.