Pass national popular vote 

To the Editor;

Republican Saul Anuzis is right when he says that the national popular vote (NPV) will correct the problems in the current electoral system, in a manner that is constitutional and works within the Electoral College. One very big problem is that the second place popular vote winner can (and five times has) win. Tell me, please, one other race or contest do you know where the loser wins!

Ignoring the national popular vote thwarts the will of the country, and is undemocratic. In Maine, tens of thousands of votes essentially don’t count. Some years it’s Republican votes that are irrelevant, other years it’s Democratic votes that are irrelevant. The battleground states — this year only five or six — will decide the presidency. 

Battleground states get campaign visits, tens of millions of dollars in campaign spending, and shifts in policy in their favor. Maine gets little of that. We have no advantage or power in this current method. None. 

Every vote in every state should be equal. Candidates should campaign in every state, crisscrossing the country just as they now crisscross Florida and Pennsylvania. 

The national popular vote favors voters, not political parties, land, or geography. Maine should stop being a spectator to the election of the leader of the free world, and pass the NPV in the new legislative session.

Lori Calderone

Dover Foxcroft