AUGUSTA, Maine — The Maine Senate passed Wednesday a proposal for the state to join a movement seeking to nullify the Electoral College by instead electing presidents by a national popular vote.
The bill from Rep. Arthur Bell, D-Yarmouth, would add Maine to the 16 states and Washington, D.C., in the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact, a long-running effort to award presidential electors based on the candidate who receives the most votes nationally.
The Senate passed it 22-13, after the House of Representatives passed it 74-67 last week. It will need additional votes before reaching Gov. Janet Mills, a Democrat who has not weighed in on this year’s measure.
Similar proposals have previously failed to pass the Legislature, including in 2019 due to opposition from most Republicans and some House Democrats. But several of those Democrats supported it this year, and the lone Republican cosponsor is Sen. Matt Pouliot of Augusta.
In a Wednesday floor speech, Pouliot acknowledged Republican opposition to the bill before arguing Maine is “not really in the mix” among influential states in the Electoral College system.
Pouliot also said former President Donald Trump’s support was “undercounted” in Maine in the 2020 election because he received 44 percent of the vote to President Joe Biden’s roughly 53 percent yet ultimately earned just one — or 25 percent — of the state’s four electoral votes.
Opponents included Sen. Eric Brakey, R-Auburn, who called the proposal an “attempted end-run around the U.S. Constitution.” And Sen. Craig Hickman, D-Winthrop, who proposed an amendment to toss the NPV question to voters via a referendum, said the switch may “incentivize” voter suppression tactics that target Black voters like him.
The National Popular Vote Interstate 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, with 205 electors accounted for among the states to so far adopt it — including Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Vermont and Connecticut in New England.
Maine has 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.
The NPV movement could face litigation should it eventually gather support from enough states. Still, a Pew Research Center survey released in September found 65 percent of American adults support electing the president by a national popular vote.
