Effort to pull Maine out of national popular vote compact fails

After the chambers of the Maine Legislature failed to agree, an effort to remove the state from a compact that seeks to abolish the Electoral College failed on Tuesday. 

In 2024, the Legislature adopted something called the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact, which Gov. Janet Mills allowed to become law without her signature. 

States that are part of the compact pledge their Electoral College votes to the presidential candidate with the most overall votes across the country, but it would only take effect once states with a total of 270 Electoral College votes have joined. Including Maine, 17 states and the District of Columbia have ratified the agreement, giving the compact a total of 209 electoral votes. 

Earlier this month, the Maine House of Representatives passed legislation, LD 252, that sought to repeal the decision to enter the compact. 

The Senate tabled the bill until Monday, when the upper chamber failed to pass it with a 16-18 vote before ultimately rejecting it. 

Both the House and Senate insisted on their positions on Tuesday, effectively killing the bill. 

Maine and Nebraska are the only states that split their electoral votes across candidates. Other states use a winner-take-all system where the candidate with the majority of the state’s popular vote gets all of the state’s electoral votes.

During floor speeches throughout consideration of LD 252, lawmakers disagreed on whether the current system or one in which the Electoral College is nullified would better represent Maine. 

In the House on Tuesday, Rep. Barbara A. Bagshaw (R-Windham) argued the current system reflects the will of all 50 states individually, whereas the National Popular Vote would dilute Mainers’ votes. 

However, Rep. Arthur Bell (D-Yarmouth), who sponsored the legislation to enter the pact last year, argued during a floor debate last month that the Electoral College system results in candidates only paying attention to voters in swing states, which Maine is not.

Mills allowed the measure to become law last year because she saw merit in both sides of this argument. “Recognizing that this measure has been the subject of public discussion several times before in Maine, I would like this important nationwide debate to continue and so I will allow this bill to become law without my signature,” she said in the statement at the time. 

And both sides of the debate do not fall squarely along party lines.

While LD 252 was sponsored solely by Republicans, it has been backed by some Democrats in committee and floor votes. 

In April, the majority of the Veterans and Legal Affairs Committee voted in favor of it, with eight legislators — Republicans, Democrats and one unenrolled — in support and five Democrats opposed.

Separately, the committee voted against another proposal, LD 1356, that sought to change Maine’s method of allocating electoral votes from the current district split to a winner-take-all system — but only if Nebraska also adopts winner-take-all. This bill is currently tabled in the House. 

In April, the Nebraska Legislature killed a bill that sought to make this switch, after Republicans failed to secure enough votes to overcome a four-hour filibuster.