OPINION:
By the narrowest of margins, Democrats now have full control of Minnesota. From banning fossil fuels to legalizing abortion until birth, the Legislature is pushing through a radical agenda. Carnage will be contained mostly within the state, but one proposal threatens the whole nation.
The National Popular Vote Interstate Compact would use state legislative power to manipulate presidential elections. Democrats passed it through state House and Senate committees in St. Paul with party-line votes and little debate. Identical bills have failed in Minnesota in the past, with strong bipartisan opposition, because NPV would harm voters and violate both the U.S. and state constitutions.
Under Minnesota law, the people of the state vote for the state’s presidential electors.
NPV would add a step after the election is held and before winners are declared. Minnesota’s secretary of state would take the state’s election results and add to them the results from every other state, then declare a winner based on that “national” result.
In other words, NPV attempts to force the Electoral College to rubber-stamp the national popular vote result. The compact takes effect if joined by states that collectively have 270 electoral votes. Since 2007, it has passed in states with 195 electoral votes. Minnesota would give it 10 more.
NPV is a transparent attempt by Democrats to tip the presidential playing field in their direction. That is shortsighted considering that Republicans just received the most popular votes nationwide in the congressional midterm election, as well as ironic and illegal.
Like many state constitutions, the Minnesota Constitution limits voting to residents. It says that “persons shall not be entitled or permitted to vote at any election in this state” if they have not “resided in the precinct for 30 days next preceding an election.”
In other words, you must live in Minnesota to vote in elections in Minnesota — pretty simple. But NPV would allow residents of other states to vote in the election for Minnesota’s presidential electors.
NPV’s attempted “end run” around the U.S. Constitution (its creator’s own words) also goes out of bounds. The original intent of the Electoral College is clear: to represent each state in presidential elections. Legislatures have wide latitude to figure out the “manner” to do that — but this does not extend so far as to allow a cabal of states to destroy the fundamental purpose of this constitutional provision.
These flaws raise another legal and practical problem. NPV would add up votes across state lines, something never before done in these United States.
The U.S. Constitution’s equal protection guarantee requires that voters in the same election vote under the same rules. Within each state, rules must be the same for ballot access, voter registration, early voting, absentee voting, vote counting, recounts and certification. But these rules vary dramatically in different states. Adding up votes from states with different rules violates both common sense and basic constitutional protections for democratic elections.
Finally, NPV would give the Minnesota secretary of state unprecedented power to accept, reject or even modify vote totals from other states. It relies on the chief election official in each compacting state to create, for that one state, a national total. In any contentious or close election, NPV’s lack of checks and balances would lead to uncertainty, litigation and chaos.
The irony of NPV is its resemblance to what many Democrats complained about after the 2020 presidential election. They accused opponents of trying to change the rules — which NPV does. They were upset about novel constitutional arguments — which NPV relies on. And they cried foul at the idea of state legislatures using their authority to question the will of their state’s own voters — which is the very core of the NPV proposal.
Minnesotans deserve their own say in presidential elections. That is the democratic process created by the U.S. Constitution and backed up by Minnesota’s Constitution. The National Popular Vote Interstate Compact is an attack on these constitutional protections of the democratic process. You might even call it an insurrection.
• Michele Bachmann is dean of the Robertson School of Government at Regent University and a former member of Congress from Minnesota.
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