FIRST ON FOX: The Minnesota legislature has an elections omnibus going through it that would “manipulate” the Electoral College, a presidential elector for former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton warned.
Three Democrat-backed bills are making their way through the Minnesota House and Senate to address election laws, with one of the bills passing through the House earlier this week.
The bills, two of them over 100 pages long, are part of an elections omnibus package — and include a provision to put Minnesota into the National Popular Vote (NPV) interstate compact.
END OF THE ELECTORAL COLLEGE IS IN SIGHT IF DEMOCRATS KEEP GETTING THEIR WAY
Fox News Digital was told by a source that the NPV provision included in the omnibus was added before Democrats in the state legislature could vet it, violating party caucus rules requiring omnibus provision review.
Omnibus bills are also considered must-pass legislation by the Minnesota Democrat caucus.
Jasper Hendricks, executive director of Democrats for the Electoral College and a former Clinton presidential elector, warned the “NPV compact is dangerously unstable” and said the theory behind the provision was the same theory behind the January 6th protesters.
“As written, the plan would use state legislative power to manipulate the Electoral College, and it relies on the same theory some supporters of President Donald Trump had after the 2020 election that legislators can ignore the will of the people in their state, take control of their presidential electoral votes, and — in the case of NPV — force them to agree with the nationwide popular vote,” Hendricks said.
“Adding confusion and chaos to our election process, NPV can take effect without a majority of states participating, but it relies on cooperation from all states,” he continued. “It could be activated or deactivated for the entire country based on the actions of just one state legislature or court.”
Save our States executive director Trent England told Fox News Digital that trying “to hide the National Popular Vote bill is an admission that it doesn’t stand up to scrutiny.”
“Sponsors of NPV are trying to manipulate DFL lawmakers and force them to vote for an unvetted, unconstitutional measure hidden within an omnibus bill,” England said.
“NPV is nothing more than an attempt to give states like California more control over Minnesota’s electoral votes than voters who actually live in Minnesota,” he continued. “It would make Minnesota irrelevant in national politics, not by replacing the Electoral College, but by manipulating it.”
England said “NPV allows individual state officials to come up with their own versions of a national vote total” and that the “NPV compact says nothing about what would happen in a dispute, or about how a national recount would work.”
“NPV is a ticking time bomb, making future election disputes far more dangerous and giving judges much more power to decide election outcomes,” England added.
Saves Our States is dedicated to defending the Electoral College at all costs. England founded the organization in 2009 and aims to preserve the state-by-state process that he believes is necessary to allow all Americans a say in who runs the country. However, as Democrats are harmed by the process that gives a voice to rural Americans, coastal elite media members have regularly sided with their allies in the Democratic Party.
NPV gained steam among progressives after the election of former President Trump via the Electoral College despite winning fewer votes overall than his Democratic opponent.
At its base, states that join the NPV compact would pledge their electoral votes to the candidate who carries the popular vote.
The Electoral College is established via Article II, Section 1 of the Constitution. States assign electors to cast a certain number of electoral votes based on the popular vote within the state, with voters choosing a slate of electors to cast their states’ ballots.
The majority of states require electoral votes to go to the candidate that receives the most votes. Maine and Nebraska are the exceptions, with the popular vote winner in the states taking home the at-large electors while each congressional district gets one electoral vote that goes to the popular candidate in each district.
Additionally, 29 states and the District of Columbia have laws binding electors to their state’s will on presidential elections. In 2020, the Supreme Court ruled that faithless electors could not vote against the will of the state.
Faithless electors are incredibly rare, with the last case occurring in 2016. Before 2016, the 1988 election saw faithless electors. The 2000 election also had a blank ballot cast.
Opponents of the NPV compact say it weighs elections in favor of coastal areas with high-density population centers, such as New York City and Los Angeles, which may not share the same values as places like central Idaho or Texas.
Proponents of the compact say it will prevent “faithless electors” and other Electoral College issues from affecting the outcome of presidential elections.
270 electoral votes are needed to take the White House. Currently, the NPV has 195 electoral votes from 15 states.
Minnesota’s inclusion would raise that to 205.
Combine the NPV with the push for rank-choice voting in several states, and the results could spell one-sided White House victories for decades.
Progressives, such as “Squad” leader Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., have called for the abolition of the Electoral College, which would require a constitutional amendment — something the NPV looks to circumvent through state-level legislation.
Neither Democrat state Rep. Mike Freiberg nor Senator Jim Carlson — sponsors of the legislation and chairs of their chambers’ respective elections committees — immediately responded to Fox News Digital’s requests for comment.
Fox News Digital’s Brian Flood and Nicholas Lanum contributed reporting.