Colorado legislature sends bill to governor that would favor popular vote over Electoral College

A bill that would award Colorado’s nine Electoral College votes for president to the winner of the national popular vote passed its final vote in the state House Thursday and is headed to the governor’s desk for a signature.

The National Popular Vote bill passed the House Thursday morning by a vote of 34-29, according to the Denver Channel.

Gov. Jared Polis (D) is expected to sign the bill.

{mosads}The bill is part of the National Popular Vote Interstate Pact, which includes 11 other states and Washington, D.C. 

The bill would only go into effect if the states that join the pact have Electoral College votes that total 270, the total required to win the White House.

As part of the pact, the national popular vote winner would be the presidential candidate who received the most votes from all 50 states and the District of Columbia in total. The Electoral College would then award the votes from states in the pact to the national popular vote winner.

Colorado’s nine electoral votes make the pact’s current total 172 votes.

“This bill has the potential to help Americans believe that their vote matters whether you’re a rural, urban or suburban voter — through this bill every vote counts equally,” Rep. Emily Sirota (D), one of the bill’s sponsors, told the Denver Channel.

The state Senate passed the bill earlier this month on a party-line vote. In Thursday’s House vote, six Democrats joined Republicans in voting against the measure.

While Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton won the popular vote in the 2016 election by nearly 3 million votes, she lost the Electoral College vote to President Trump by a wide margin.

Trump won 304 electoral votes to Clinton’s 227.

State Rep. Lori Saine (R), an opponent of the bill, argued that support for the bill and the overall pact would likely whither should Trump win the popular vote in the 2020 election.

“I think we would see a lot of defections, and that’s hardly fair,” Saine said, according to The Denver Post.