In every presidential election, only one question matters.

Which candidate will get the 270 votes needed to win the electoral college?

Our founders so deeply feared a tyranny of the majority that they rejected the idea of

a direct vote for president.

That's why they created the electoral college.

For more than two centuries, it has encouraged coalition building, given a voice to both big

and small states, and discouraged voter fraud.

Unfortunately, there is now a well-financed, below-the-radar effort to do away with the

electoral college.

It is called National Popular Vote, or NPV, and it wants to do exactly what the founders

rejected.

Award the job of president to the person who gets the most votes nationally.

Even if you agree with this goal, it's hard to agree with their method.

Rather than amend the Constitution, which they have no chance of doing, NPV plans an end-run

around it.

Here's what NPV does.

It asks states to sign a contract to give their presidential electors to the winner of the

National Popular Vote instead of the winner of the state's popular vote.

What does that mean of practice?

It means that if NPV had been in place in 2004, for example, when George W. Bush won

the National Vote, California's electoral votes would have gone to Bush, even though John

Carey won that state by 1.2 million votes.

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