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A multi-year effort to add Nevada to the National Popular Vote interstate compact (NPV) has failed due to bipartisan opposition. Friday, April 11, was the deadline for bills to advance out of committee. The NPV measure, Assembly Joint Resolution 6*, did not even receive a hearing after the measure’s sponsor determined not to advance it.

NPV’s failure was the result of several factors, including bipartisan concerns about gaps and uncertainty in the compact’s text. The compact campaign was launched in 2006 as a way to rig the Electoral College, forcing it to rubber stamp the national popular vote results. States in the compact would ignore the will of voters within their state and instead select all their presidential electors based on the national results. Yet doing this would require the cooperation of every state, including those not in the compact.

There are currently 17 states that have joined NPV, although many seem to have done so more as a protest than as serious policy. The compact only takes effect if joined by states that control an electoral vote majority. It currently has 209 electoral votes committed to it, out of the 270 that it needs.

Should NPV ever take effect, Nevada would lose its distinctive voice in presidential elections. This was recognized by former Gov. Steve Sisolak, who vetoed an earlier NPV bill. 

The current NPV bill was an attempt to amend the Nevada State Constitution, designed to avoid a veto by current Gov. Joe Lombardo. That process requires a measure to pass the legislature twice, in two different sessions, and then be approved by voters. AJR 6 had passed in the previous session, but according to legislative rules the effort is now dead until at least 2027.