AUGUSTA, Maine — As voters headed to the polls in Tuesday’s primaries, the Maine House of Representatives passed a Democrat-led proposal to join a movement of states seeking to elect presidents by a national popular vote rather than the Electoral College.
The bill from Rep. Arthur Bell, D-Yarmouth, would add Maine to the group of 16 states and Washington, D.C., in the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact that is seeking to award presidential electors based on the candidate who receives the most votes nationally.
It passed the House in a 74-67 vote. While the bill faces further action in both chambers, the Tuesday vote was the biggest question because Democrats have a large majority in the Senate. Similar proposals have previously failed to pass, including in 2019 due to opposition from most Republicans and some House Democrats. Some of those Democrats now support it.
The compact would take effect if states accounting for at least 270 electors — the minimum number needed to win the presidency outright — adopt it. The compact needs 65 additional votes, since the states to so far adopt it — including Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Vermont and Connecticut in New England — represent just 205 electors.
Maine accounts for four Electoral College votes and has split two votes by congressional district since 1972, with two at-large votes going to the statewide popular vote winner. Nebraska is the only other state with a similar system.
“I have faith in our election system and in our fellow voters to decide for themselves who should be president of this country,” Rep. Laura Supica, D-Bangor, who co-chairs the Legislature’s voting committee, said.
Assistant House Minority Leader Amy Arata of New Gloucester, joined several fellow Republicans in arguing the bill would weaken Maine’s electoral influence.
“Adopting a national popular vote scheme would cause court fights and further division and acrimony in our already divided state and nation,” Arata said.
Gov. Janet Mills, a Democrat, has not weighed in on the bill. Most Republicans have opposed the national popular vote effort, but Sen. Matt Pouliot, R-Augusta, cosponsored Bell’s bill.
The proposal received a split report from the Veterans and Legal Affairs Committee, as five Democrats voted to advance it, five Republicans opposed it and three Democrats backed an amended version from Sen. Craig Hickman, D-Winthrop, to put it to voters via a referendum.
Former President Donald Trump became the fifth president in U.S. history to get elected without winning the popular vote when he defeated former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in 2016. He lost Maine in both 2016 and 2020 but won the 2nd Congressional District in each election. Trump is all but certain to face President Joe Biden again in November, and an early poll of Maine voters released last month gave Trump the edge.
While the movement could face legal challenges should it gather support from enough states, a Pew Research Center survey released in September found 65 percent of American adults support electing the president by the national popular vote.
