Virginia joins National Popular Vote pact, edging nation closer to popular vote for presidential elections

Virginia Gov. Abigail Spanberger, a Democrat, signed a bill into law April 13 that adds the state to the National Popular Vote Compact, an interstate agreement designed to award the presidency to the winner of the national popular vote.

The measure, H.B. 965, commits Virginia to giving its 13 electoral votes to the presidential candidate who receives the most votes nationwide, rather than to the candidate who wins the state — if the National Popular Vote compact reaches its activation threshold of 270 electoral votes, which would be a majority of states. 

If activated, the compact — formally known as the Agreement Among the States to Elect the President by National Popular Vote — would change how a participating state’s electors are instructed to vote. 

Virginia’s addition brings the total to 18 states plus Washington, D.C., which represent 222 electoral votes, thus falling 48 votes short of the threshold. Until that threshold is met, Virginia and the other member states will continue awarding electors based on their own internal state election results. The other states that have joined the compact are: California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Massachusetts, Maryland, Maine, Minnesota, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, and Washington. So far, every state that has joined is led by Democrats. 

According to the Virginia General Assembly, the compact relies on Article II of the Constitution, which gives states broad discretion to determine how they assign their electoral votes. There is no federal requirement that states base their electoral votes on their own statewide popular vote, leaving open the possibility of alternative methods. 

While supporters argue the compact is a way to ensure every voter’s ballot carries the same weight, critics argue the plan circumvents the Electoral College system and could diminish the influence of smaller states. 

Spanberger praised the compact as a way to make “every single person’s vote count the same.”

“I think this is a very straightforward, long-term plan to get us to a point where the United States is frankly what most people think it is, which is a place where every person’s vote counts the same as every other person’s vote,” Spanberger said during an April 14 virtual press conference, according to the Virginia news station WFXR.

In a response to the bill’s signing, the Virginia Republican Party wrote on X that “fake Moderate Spanberger just signed a bill to render Virginians’ vote for president NULL AND VOID!”

Under the bill, “all of Virginia’s Electoral College votes will go to the winner of the national popular vote — no matter who wins the popular vote in our Commonwealth,” the GOP leaders said. The party added that the move is “an unconstitutional assault on our democracy.”