Lansing Democrats are pushing forward with bills to enter Michigan into the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact: a bid to radically transform the way Americans elect the President of the United States. State Rep. Rachelle Smit (R-Martin) strongly opposes the measures.

“If House Bills 4156 and 4440 are enacted in Michigan and adopted by enough other states, this effort will disenfranchise Michigan voters by forcing electoral votes to whichever presidential candidate earns the most votes nationally, not the most votes in the state of Michigan,” Smit said.

Under a national popular vote compact, if Candidate A wins the popular vote nationwide, ALL of Michigan’s electoral votes would be given to Candidate A – even if Michigan voters supported Candidate B by a wide margin. Smit said this would drown out the voices of both our urban cities and rural farming communities.

“Our Founding Fathers created the Electoral College to ensure the interests of all states and regions are considered when electing the president – not just big cities and population centers like New York and California,” Smit said. “Our largest cities in Michigan are much smaller than those in other states. The National Popular Vote Interstate Compact threatens to upend this delicate balance and throw presidential elections into disarray.”

Smit also said the compact will likely require states to prematurely accept the election results other states are reporting, even if those results are known to be incomplete due to other problematic policies like priority voting or ranked-choice voting.

“The National Popular Vote movement is bad for Michigan and bad for America,” Smit said. “It’s unfair to voters outside of large population centers, bucks the Constitution, and serves to further erode confidence in our elections. Michigan legislators should soundly reject this misguided proposal.”

Smit represents Michigan House District 43, which includes portions of Allegan, Barry, Eaton, and Ottawa counties. She previously served for 7 years as Martin Township Clerk.