Thomas Breen photo
Aaron Goode outside 200 Orange polls: Legislators eventually agreed to join national compact.
Aaron Goode traveled to the state Capitol five times and sent hundreds of emails to try to convince legislators to have Connecticut join a national movement to bypass the electoral college in choosing a president. Those years of lobbying by him and other New Haven pro-democracy activists have now borne results.
On Saturday the State Senate voted 21 to 14 to approve House Bill 5421, which would have Connecticut join an interstate compact to elect the United States president by national popular vote. The State House passed the bill 77 to 73 on April 26.
In an unrelated local visit Monday, Gov. Dannel P. Malloy said he plans to sign the bill.
The president and vice president are currently elected indirectly through the electoral college system, established by the 12th amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which appoints 538 electors (corresponding to the 435 U.S. congressional representatives, the 100 U.S. senators, and three additional electors representing Washington D.C.,) who then cast their votes based on the popular vote of each state. Whichever presidential candidate gets to 270 electoral college votes first wins the election.
H.B. 5421 would commit Connecticut’s seven electoral college votes to the candidate who wins the most individual votes cast across the country, or the “national popular vote,” during any given presidential election.
The bill would go into effect only when states representing 270 or more electoral college votes sign onto the interstate compact. Connecticut will be the 12th state (plus Washington D.C.) to join, thus bringing the electoral count for participating states up to 172. That leaves 98 electoral college to go.
Steve Winter.
Goode, a co-founder of the group New Haven Votes, and Prospect Hill/Newhallville Alder Steve Winter have been two of the most outspoken advocates in recent years for Connecticut to join the national popular vote interstate compact. On Monday afternoon, both said the State Senate represented a satisfying culmination of a decade’s worth of activism around making presidential elections more direct and equitable.
“It’s a delayed gratification,” Goode said as he stood outside of the Hall of Records at 200 Orange St. (which is the polling place for Downtown voters. “But delayed gratification is a beautiful thing.”
Goode, who is also on the executive committee of the local chapter of the League of Women Voters, said that he recognized the importance of a national popular vote in the mid-2000s after reading Slate essays by Yale law professor Akhil Amar and after reading Every Vote Equal: A State-Based Plan for Electing the President by National Popular Vote by John Koza.
Goode said that the first email he ever sent to a state legislator about the issue went then-New Haven State Rep. Cam Staples back in 2007.
“The winner-take-all college system is an anachronism designed by 18th century slaveholders as an accoutrement to the 3/5ths compromise,” he said. “It has not place in a 21st century democracy.”
Goode was registering young people to vote in Newhallville this weekend at a New Haven Bike Month event. He said an important part of his voter registration pitch is that residents should know that each of their voices matter and contribute to a functional civil and political society. He said that the state’s imminent adoption of national popular vote legislation makes that statement more accurate than under the current electoral college system.
On the second floor of the Hall of Records, Winter lauded the strength of grassroots enthusiasm for the national popular vote as critical to pushing state legislators to vote for the bill this session.
Winter lobbying in support of the national popular vote at the state Capitol in 2017.
He said that, through his work with the group National Popular Vote Connecticut, he has seen hundreds of residents over the past decade contact legislators directly via email and phone; knock doors and make calls in districts represented by legislators uncertain about the bill; and travel up to Hartford themselves to testify before the General Assembly about the importance of direct elections. He said around 50 Connecticut residents traveled to Hartford this year to testify during the state congressional hearing on H.B. 5421. Last year saw around 100 Nutmeggers travel to Hartford to share their concerns on a similar bill.
Winter identified two primary reasons he has spent so much time and effort advocating for the national popular vote since first hearing about it in a Yale constitutional law course, taught by Akhil Amar, back in 2007. “The simple equity of having every person’s vote counted equally,” he said, “and the way presidential candidates campaign currently benefits a handful of swing states.”
He said that presidential candidates (including those who eventually win office) give preferential financial and policy treatment to a small number of states with critical electoral college votes, such as Florida, Pennsylvania, Ohio and Michigan.
“Regardless of what you think about President Trump’s steel tariffs,” he said, “that policy clearly benefits a very specific constituency.”
Markeshia Ricks Photo
Lemar, who sponsored the bill, at the Capitol.
New Haven State Rep. Roland Lemar, one of the chief sponsors and supporters of the House bill.
“All voters should be valued equally,” Lemar wrote in an email, “no matter if they live in a small town in Ohio, or our town here in Connecticut. Our current Electoral College system, grounded in state laws which allocate electoral votes on a winner-take-all basis, leads presidential candidates to concentrate their resources on voters in a handful of swing states, relegating the vast majority of the country to spectator status. Our state, and urban issues across the country, are often ignored at the expense of a few votes in a few towns in a few states. We can do better and the NPV compact will ensure that we are all viewed equally in the eyes of our future leaders.”
Proponents of the electoral college argue it forces candidates to visit and listen to voters throughout the country rather than in the most densely populated pockets.
Goode and Winter also stressed that the national popular vote is a strictly nonpartisan issue, beneficial to any candidate from either party who has faith in the broad appeal of their proposals.
“If you think conservative ideas have genuine popular support,” Goode said, addressing state and national Republicans who are wary of the national popular vote, “you have nothing to be afraid of.”
The bill passed the state House last week with one Republican voting for it and three Democrats voting against. The bill passed the State Senate with a bit more bipartisan support, with three Republicans and all 18 Democrats voting in favor.
“This is a nonpartisan issue,” Winter said, noting that political figures ranging from Newt Gingrich and Donald Trump on the right to Keith Ellison on the left have come out in support of the national popular vote. “It’s about whichever candidate gets the most votes.”
He pointed out that, although the past two examples of presidents winning the electoral college without winning the popular vote have been Republicans, Democratic candidate John Kerry very nearly did the same in 2004 if not for a 100,000 vote margin in Ohio.
Winter said that the next national popular vote movement now needs to focus on states that are close to passing similar legislation, like Oregon and Delaware, and states like Colorado, which have a popular initiative process. Goode said the next breakthrough needs to happen with some big Republican-leaning states getting on board.
“This is just one battle in a longer fight,” he said. He said that getting 0 electoral votes to 172 in support of a national popular vote was an incredible accomplishment, but that getting from 172 to 270 would be much harder.
“Some of us have been fighting in the trenches for a very long time for this,” he said, “and we will continue to fight.”
The 2018 Agenda
| Bill # | Status | Summary | Sponsors |
|---|---|---|---|
| HB 5001 | In Committee Died on the Floor | To impose a fee on transactions involving virtual currency. | Pat Dillon |
| HB 5031 SB 4 | In Committee Committee Approved Sent to the Floor Passed Gov. Signed | To allow students to have equal access to institutional financial aid. | Higher Education and Employment Advancement Committee |
| HB 5082 | In Committee Committee Approved Died on the Floor | To provide state funds to assist hurricane victims from Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands who are living in Connecticut. | Juan Candelaria |
| HB 5126 | In Committee Died on the Floor | To increase funding to boards of education and family resource centers that provide assistance to students and families from Puerto Rico. | Juan Candelaria |
| HB 5112 | In Committee Sent to the Floor Died on the Floor | To permit the retail sale of marijuana and tax such sale to raise revenue for the General Fund and to fund substance abuse treatment, prevention, education and awareness programs. | Juan R. Candelaria, Angel Arce, Josh Elliott, Steven J. Stafstrom, Jeff Currey, Susan M. Johnson, Chris Soto, Patricia A. Dillon, Roland J. Lemar, James M. Albis, Christopher Rosario, Kim Rose, Robyn A. Porter, Edwin Vargas, Matthew Lesser, Gregory Haddad, Joshua Malik Hall, Ezequiel Santiago, Diana S. Urban, Toni E. Walker, Robert Sanchez, Alphonse Paolillo |
| SB 1 | In Committee Died on the Floor | To expand the sick leave program to provide earned family and medical leave to certain individuals employed in this state. | Martin M. Looney, Bob Duff, Timothy D. Larson, Steve Cassano, Beth Bye, Terry B. Gerratana, Gary A. Winfield, Ted Kennedy, Catherine A. Osten, Marilyn V. Moore, Edwin A. Gomes, Mae Flexer |
| SB 62 | In Committee Died on the Floor | To provide tuition-free community college for Connecticut residents. | Martin M. Looney |
| HB 5182 | In Committee Committee Approved Sent to the Floor Died on the Floor | To require building officials in certain municipalities to establish and assess a fee for the commencement of certain work without a necessary permit. | Planning and Development Committee |
| HB 5210 | In Committee Committee Approved Sent to the Floor Passed | To (1) mandate insurance coverage of essential health benefits, (2) expand mandated health benefits for women, children and adolescents, and (3) expand mandated contraception benefits. | Insurance and Real Estate Committee |
| HB 5084 | In Committee Died on the Floor | To encourage the recycling of nip bottles that otherwise frequently litter urban areas. | Roland J. Lemar and Juan R. Candelaria |
| HB 5350 HB 5537 | In Committee Committee Denied Sent to the Floor Died on the Floor | To create a pilot program for shared solar facilities at municipal airports. The bill also would delete the provision that dictates the length of Tweed Airport’s runway. | Energy and Technology Committee |
| HB 5475 | In Committee Committee Approved Sent to the Floor Passed | To amend statutory provisions concerning a police officer’s viewing of a recording from body-worn recording equipment under certain circumstances. | Judiciary Committee |
| HB 5515 | In Committee Committee Approved Sent to the Floor Passed | To permit a zoning commission to regulate the brightness and illumination of advertising signs and billboards. | Judiciary Committee |
| HB 5540 | In Committee Committee Approved Sent to the Floor Died on the Floor | To ban guns without serial numbers and regulate those which are sold in a form requiring the purchaser to finish assembly or that are homemade and to permit local authorities to interview immediate family members as part of a determination of an applicant’s suitability. | Judiciary Committee |
| HB 5542 | In Committee Committee Approved Sent to the Floor Passed | To ban the sale or transfer, possession, manufacturing or use of bump stocks or other accessories to increase the rate of fire of a firearm. | Judiciary Committee |
We also need this.
Election Recall
Term Limits
Ballot Access
Open Primary
Be able to pay A Fee to get on the ballot.
Proportional representation