March 6, 2019 [lightly edited, 3/8/19] Representative Raymond Dehn Chair, House Elections Subcommittee Re: HF 1941; national popular vote for president Dear Representative Dehn: I am Chair of the State Presidential Elections Team at Minnesota Citizens for Clean Elections (MnCCE). I am writing both (i) to express unequivocal support for HR 1941, the Agreement Among the States to Elect the President by the National Popular Vote (the “Interstate Compact”); and (ii) to urge your committee to consider complementary approaches that would advance the ultimate goal of having the national popular vote determine who is elected president. I. Support for HF 1941 Minnesota is well-positioned to move national popular vote forward and possibly overcome partisan hesitation that has slowed progress from the inception of the movement. Some background: National popular vote should be a bipartisan issue. Indeed, for decades, there has been strong bipartisan support for the goal of replacing the Electoral College with direct election of the president by the people. This has included many of the Republican Party’s most esteemed leaders. In Congress, notable supporters of a constitutional amendment, among others, are then-Congressman George H.W. Bush, David Durenberger (twice), Bob Dole (twice), Howard Baker (twice), Lisa Murkowski, and Dan Coats—along with Walter Mondale, Hubert Humphrey, and Wendy Anderson. At the state level, Minnesota’s supporters of the Interstate Compact have included Congressman Tom Emmer, Speaker Kurt Zellers, former Representative and University of Minnesota Regent Laura Brod and Representative Pat Garofalo. HR 1941 stands in the mainstream of the state-level movement that began in 2001—with discussions among legal scholars—and extends to today. The movement’s history is outlined on pages 3-7 of Repairing Presidential Elections: 2018-2020, at https:// cleanelectionsmn.org/wp-content/uploads/Repairing-Presidential-Elections.- Final-1.27.pdf From 2006 to today, National Popular Vote Organization (NPVO) has taken the lead by developing and supporting the Interstate Agreement. Signing states have steadily increased in number, and by the close of this year’s state legislative sessions it is entirely possible that states with 200 electoral votes (of the 270 required for the Interstate Compact to become effective) will have joined. A well-recognized impediment, however, is the failure to date of any state that had either a Republican Party governor or a legislative chamber controlled by the Republican Party to have enacted the Interstate Compact. Some individual Republican-controlled chambers have passed the bill, and many nationally prominent Republicans have voiced support, but only Democratic Party “trifecta” states have joined. Minnesota may be poised to help lead the nation past this obstacle. With a split legislature that includes a fairly evenly divided Senate, and with a Governor, Speaker and Majority Leader who are seeking bipartisan agreement where it can be reasonably found, the Interstate Compact—with its rich history of bipartisan support—might be achievable. Indeed, just last September in Michigan, the Interstate Compact was introduced in the State Senate with bipartisan support (15R; 10D) from 25 of the Senate’s 38 members. One of NPV Org’s leading conservative spokespersons—Patrick Rosenstiel from St. Paul, Minnesota—testified in favor of the bill. This should happen in Minnesota. I urge the House Elections Subcommittee, with bipartisan support if at all possible, to approve HF 1941. II. Approaches that Complement the Interstate Compact: State Constitutional Amendment; Contingent Statute that Pairs Minnesota with Republican- leaning State(s) At the inception of the national popular vote movement in 2001-2006, and more recently from 2017 to the present, other approaches to achieve an actual or de facto election on the basis of the national popular vote have been discussed. See Repairing Presidential Elections, pp. 3-4, 6-7, 9-11, 14-16. All these approaches are consistent with, and complement, the Interstate Compact. In Minnesota, in September 2017 former Speaker Paul Thissen (himself a strong supporter of the Interstate Compact) drafted a bill for a constitutional amendment under which the State would unconditionally cast its electoral votes for the winner of the national popular vote (see accompanying draft). In November 2017, Minnesota Citizens for Clean Elections endorsed Rep. Thissen’s proposal. MnCCE supports it still. Particularly if it is not possible to reach agreement on the Interstate Compact, I urge the Legislature to consider a constitutional amendment along the lines previously proposed. An amendment would not take effect until the 2024 election, which helps insulate it from the partisan politics of the day. Under the amendment, the Legislature could enact both the Interstate Compact and an unconditional law. Like the Interstate Compact, a constitutional amendment would provide stability and prevent last-minute manipulation of Electoral College rules. At the national level, a relatively new organization—Making Every Vote Count Foundation (MEVC)—has taken a page from Paul Thissen by both strongly supporting the Interstate Compact and taking a deep look at potential complementary strategies. Thus, in its first year, MEVC worked hard to help assure passage of the Interstate Compact in Connecticut in 2018. This year, MEVC is trying to address the problem that only Democratic trifecta states had adopted the Compact. A novel approach to this problem has been proposed in Maryland (Senate Bill 582). Under SB 582, Maryland (which has already joined the Interstate Compact) would agree to start casting its electoral votes in 2020 for the winner of the national popular vote if another state (or states) with at least as many electoral votes, and that did not vote for the same candidate for president as Maryland did in 2016, does the same. (SB 582 should be amended to specify that the paired state or states would also need to adopt the Interstate Compact.) Maryland’s legislature is controlled by the Democratic Party; its governor is a Republican. If Maryland is able to achieve a bipartisan agreement to this approach, and if this bipartisan success story allows Maryland to pair up with Republican states, then Minnesota—with its own hoped-for bipartisan success story—might follow suit next year. For the present, I strongly support HF 1941 and respectfully urge that the Subcommittee consider the merits of allowing the people to decide if they want the state’s electoral votes for president to be awarded to the candidate who receives the most votes nation- wide. Sincerely, Mark Bohnhorst Chair, State Presidential Elections Team Minnesota Citizens for Clean Elections 612-822-9588 CC: Representative Jim Nash Representative John Lesch George Beck .