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Writer's pictureReasearch Rose

Think Before You Ink: LWV Opposes the “Voter Choice Ballot” Proposal

The "Voter Choice Balot" (VCB) is different from the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact (NPVIC), which has states award their electoral votes to the winner of the popular vote outright (i.e. voters are not asked the question below). The NPVIC would only go into effect when the states in the Compact collectively represent a majority of the electoral votes (at least 270 of 538), thus guaranteeing the presidency to the national popular vote winner. No such guarantee exists with the VCB proposal.


LWV Concerns with VCB

  1. The Voter Choice Ballot (VCB) is confusing. We believe voters would be tempted by the ballot question, which many Americans support in theory (namely, the winner being the candidate who receives the most votes). However, the application of further steps is unnecessarily convoluted.

  2. Voters would quite likely be annoyed — and surprised — to find that, because they support the idea that the candidate with the most nationwide votes should win, the choice on their own individual ballot may be flipped.

  3. The unilateral enactment by individual states would put some states and state political parties at a disadvantage.

  4. The LWV does not encourage strategic voting (as per our 2020 Electoral System position); the VCB system may cause strategic planning among voters and parties within the states.

  5. We question the idea and doubt the likelihood of systematically and strategically enacting the VCB plan by politically balanced state pairs.



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