AUGUSTA, Maine — The Maine House of Representatives approved Tuesday a Republican bill that had some Democratic support to remove the state from an interstate compact seeking to elect presidents by a national popular vote instead of through the Electoral College.
The House advanced the bill from Rep. Barbara Bagshaw, R-Windham, after a motion to defeat it failed in a 76-71 vote. It faces further votes in the Senate before coming back to the lower chamber. The Democratic-controlled Legislature had narrowly approved last year a measure from Rep. Arthur Bell, D-Yarmouth, to join the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact, which currently includes 18 states accounting for 209 electoral votes.
The agreement would take effect if enough states join it to have the minimum 270 electoral votes needed to win the presidency outright. Gov. Janet Mills, a Democrat, let Bell’s bill become law without her signature last spring, saying “there is merit to both sides of the argument” and that she “would like this important nationwide debate to continue.”
President Donald Trump went on to win the November election over former Vice President Kamala Harris by a 312-226 margin in the Electoral College, and Trump also won the popular vote by receiving about 49.8 percent of votes to 48.3 percent for Harris.
A faction of the Democratic caucus has wanted to reverse last year’s law. The Legislature’s Veterans and Legal Affairs Committee endorsed Bagshaw’s bill last month in an 8-5 vote, with two Democrats — Sens. Jill Duson of Portland and Craig Hickman of Winthrop — and independent Rep. Sharon Frost of Belgrade joining Republican members in backing it.
Reps. Jim Dill of Old Town, Tavis Hasenfus of Readfield and Karen Montell of Gardiner were the House Democrats who joined Republicans in backing Bagshaw’s bill Tuesday.
Maine and Nebraska are the only two states to split Electoral College votes by congressional district, with two at-large votes going to the statewide popular vote winner.
Supporters of the national popular vote system have argued the Electoral College is antiquated and dilutes the influence of a large chunk of voters by making presidential candidates only focus on a few battleground states. Democrats echoed some of those points Tuesday in speaking against Bagshaw’s bill.
“To me, it’s as simple as every vote should be equal,” Bell added.
The League of Women Voters of Maine said a national popular vote system is “nonpartisan” and “favors voters, not parties, land, geography, factions, or states.”
Opponents of the system called it an “end run” around the Constitution that would result in candidates caring less about Maine and more about densely populated cities. Bagshaw said a national popular vote would have forced Maine to send all of its votes to Trump last November despite a majority of the state backing Harris. Trump earned one vote from the 2nd District.
“Let’s return our state to a system that respects the will of our people, honors our unique method of allocating electors and maintains trust in the electoral process,” Bagshaw said.
Polling from the University of New Hampshire Survey Center released last August showed Mainers were divided on the state joining the national compact last year, with 35 percent of respondents supporting it, 37 percent opposing it, 13 percent neutral and 15 percent unsure.
