We recently received this message from the Avaaz Community and felt compelled to shaer:
More Americans voted for Hillary Clinton than Donald Trump! That’s right, Clinton won the popular vote, but the electoral college system will silence the people’s voice. But there’s an incredible Hail Mary plan that could still stop Trump — if we act really fast!
The Popular Vote Plan is genius. It’s legislation that would guarantee the candidate who receives the most popular votes is elected, and it only needs the support of enough states to equal 270 electoral votes to pass. 10 states are on board, and 4 have pending legislation, so it’s already 3/4 of the way there!
The electoral college meets in a few weeks to decide our next president — and if we can create enormous national pressure on the few holdout states to adopt the plan before it’s too late, we can still stop Trump from becoming the next president. Let’s make this massive!
The electoral college system is a disaster for our democracy. It forces presidential candidates to focus all their energy on a small fraction of their voters — leading to crazy policies like the enormous agricultural subsidies designed to appease farmers in the electorally-important state of Iowa — and it leaves 75% of voters without a voice in who runs our country.
To officially get rid of the electoral college would require a constitutional amendment. But what’s so brilliant about the Popular Vote Plan is that it doesn’t need a change to the constitution, it just needs the consensus of enough states. Here’s how it would work: states pass legislation saying they will give all their electoral college votes to the winner of the national popular vote, and, when there are enough states to represent 270 electoral votes, the legislation becomes binding.
In 2004, Bush became president in the exact same way Trump is set to. Right after the election, there was huge outrage over the electoral college — but then our attention moved on. This time, we must seize the moment and do everything we can to stop Trump from becoming president.
Democracy is at the core of Avaazers’ DNA. We come together around the idea that the world we want is a dream shared by most people everywhere — not just the vision of the few. This is a chance to take a step towards that vision despite the darkness of the last few days, and to put our country on the path to a better future.