Tag: Privileges and Elections

The National Popular Vote, Virginia, and then…?

TimeHorse November 10, 2020 No Comments

Earlier this year, the Virginia House of Delegates voted to pass the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact. It then went to the Virginia Senate where it was tabled in the Senate Privileges and Elections committee where it now remains. Unlike most tabled legislation, we have it on good authority the Senate P&E will vote on it in early December. If we win there and then in then, assuming we get at least Twenty of the Twenty-One Democrats and—worst case—no Republicans, we can pass the Senate and the General Assembly with the Lieutenant Governor breaking the tie. Governor Northam has promised to sign the bill when and if we do!

But then what?

Minnesota!

Starting now begins our #PopularVote2024 strategy where we look to shore up the last five or six states to get us to 270. One of those states will almost certainly be Minnesota, land of 10,000 lakes! I’ve been to Minnesota, it’s absolutely gorgeous, and the Mall of America is a sight to be seen, as is the Mary Tyler Moore house.

Today, I worked with some fellow NPVIC advocates to find some likely soft Republican districts we could target to get voters to call their State Representative and ask them to support the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact. Of the 134 House Districts, we selected 4 that were battleground districts and one that was a hail-mary pass for any Republican challenger.

Minnesota Legislative Districts
The 134 paired legislative districts of Minnesota; we hope voters in these districts can help Minnesota to be the next state after Virginia to join the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact

We don’t know how well this will go but nothing ventured, nothing gained, eh? And we must try anything that gets us to #PopularVote2024!

NPVIC On to the House of Delegates Floor of Virginia

TimeHorse February 7, 2020 2 Comments

It’s been a long run to get us here. I testified for Delegate Mark Levine’s HB177 on Monday, 27 January for the Constitutional Subcommittee helping to get it sent to the Privileges and Elections Committee for a Committee Vote scheduled for Friday.

I couldn’t attend the Committee Hearing on 31 January but was able to watch it on my computer to my extreme melancholy as three Delegates we expected to vote for the bill actually both voted against and one of them even testified against.

The HB177 fails on the House Privileges and Elections Committee in Virginia. 31 January 2020.

I reported this on the official Facebook page on Wednesday, 5 February 2020, which you can read in full here: https://www.facebook.com/1883850291834231/photos/a.1883851011834159/2694997057386213/

That said, we still held out hope that Delegates Krizek could be convinced. We had one more House of Delegates Privileges and Elections on their last meeting before the official Crossover day when no new bills can be considered. Today was make or break.

Under House Rule 70, any member who voted on the prevailing (nay) side is permitted to move to reexamine. And as any Delegate can second, that’s exactly what Delegate Krizek did, seconded by Delegate Levine. We were back on the board!

After a vigorous debate on House Rule 70 and whether the motion to reconsider HB177 was debated, Delegate M. L. Cole made a motion to do with the NPVIC what he did to it in 2019, and 2018, and 2017, … a motion to Table!

Delegate Mark L. Cole votes to table HB177 on Friday, 7 February, 2020.

Fortunately, we had Delegate Krizek and Delegate Askew back on our side (Delegate Kelly Convirs-Fowler was sick that day; we wish her well), we easily defeated the measure with Chairman Lindsey abstaining. It was then on to the final vote…

HB177 Passes the House Privalages and Elections Subcommittee, just in time, 7 February, 2020.

This time, we made it! For the first time in the 4 years I’ve been fighting for the NPVIC, my home state of Virginia had voted the bill onto the floor of one of its houses. And as Crossover is in just 5 days, Monday and Tuesday will be Votarama, as the House of Delegates rushes to pass every bill still pending before Crossover on 11 February.

Almost there…