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Advocates for the National Popular Vote interstate compact (NPV) and opponents of the Electoral College (there’s a lot of overlap, but many critics of the Electoral College still oppose NPV) often make a claim along the lines of “No other nation on earth has anything like the Electoral College!” It’s not true, of course, because most major democratic nations use a two-step, indirect process to choose their chief executive that’s somewhat similar to ours—the main difference is that while we use a temporary assembly (the Electoral College) they use a permanent assembly (the national legislature).

But there are some democratic nations that do directly elect their chief executive (often also referred to as the “head of government”), most notably France. What most advocates for NPV generally won’t acknowledge is that France and most other democratic countries that directly elect their chief executive also don’t use NPV’s “first past the post” system in that election. Instead, if no candidate receives a majority of the popular vote, a runoff is held between the two candidates who received the most votes in the initial round.

The danger of not having a runoff is that the winner might be someone with very modest support. In 2017 Emmanuel Macron received the most votes in France’s first round, receiving barely 24 percent of the vote, and the runner-up received only 21 percent. The 2022 election was barely better, with Macron finishing on top with 28 percent of the vote. In both cases he had to go on to face the runner-up and win a majority.

In those two elections the candidate receiving the most votes in the first round also won the second round. But that’s not always the case—in Argentina in 2023, Sergio Massa finished the first round with less than 37 percent of the vote to Javier Milei’s 30 percent. In the second round, Milei won with more than 55 percent of the vote. Without that second round, a candidate with far less support among the people would have wound up being elected.

The runoff requirement also protects against extremists gaining power when more mainstream candidates splinter the vote. Chile, which held elections at the end of 2025, also directly elects its president using a runoff process if no candidate receives a majority in the first round. The top vote-getter in last November’s first round was the candidate of the Communist Party of Chile, who received just under 27 percent of the vote, while the conservative runner-up received about 24 percent. In the December runoff, however, the conservative candidate came out on top with fifty-eight percent of the vote.

The National Popular Vote compact has no provisions for a runoff, unlike most of the advanced democratic nations that directly elect their chief executive (I think South Korea is the only advanced, major democracy that doesn’t require a majority or other minimum share of the vote).

It’s not difficult to predict that if NPV was in effect, more than a few celebrities or populist demagogues would consider tapping into widespread voter anger and distrust in the parties, since they might need just 25 or 30 percent of the vote in order to win. NPV advocates who like to point to how other nations elect their chief executive ought to look a bit deeper and figure out why, with perhaps a single exception (South Korea), the few advanced democracies that directly elect their chief executive do not allow someone to win with bare pluralities.