Subcommittee Chairman Ted Cruz, R-Texas, speaks as Federal Aviation Administration Acting Administrator Daniel Elwell, National Transportation Safety Board Chairman Robert Sumwalt, and Department of Transportation Inspector General Calvin Scovel appear before a Senate Transportation subcommittee hearing on commercial airline safety, on Capitol Hill, Wednesday, March 27, 2019, in Washington. Two recent Boeing 737 MAX crashes, in Ethiopia and Indonesia, which killed nearly 350 people, have lead to the temporary grounding of models of the aircraft and to increased scrutiny of the FAA’s delegation of a number of aspects of the certification process to the aircraft manufacturers themselves. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)

The Democratic-led Virginia House of Delegates just passed a resolution to have the state give their electoral votes to the person who “wins” the national popular vote in the presidential election.

It wasn’t a walkaway even with a Democratic House, the vote passed 51-46, but it still has to pass the Senate and be signed by the governor. The Senate is controlled by Democrats and the governor is a Democrat, Ralph Northam.

This would make Virginia part of the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact.

From The Hill:

“Under the compact, Virginia agrees to award its electoral votes to the presidential ticket that receives the most popular votes in all 50 states and the District of Columbia,” a bill summary states. “The compact goes into effect when states cumulatively possessing a majority of the electoral votes have joined the compact.”

“A state may withdraw from the compact; however, a withdrawal occurring within six months of the end of a President’s term shall not become effective until a President or Vice President has qualified to serve the next term,” the summary continues.

They need enough states to meet the majority of the electoral votes for the Compact to become effective, 270. Right now, with 15 states and Washington, D.C., they are short by 74 electoral votes. There are measures pending in other states. Most of the states who have passed the measure are blue states.

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) weighed in with a little information to Virginians on what their House just did to them.

VA House votes to give all of Virginia’s votes to California & New York. Because that’s definitely in the interest of Virginians. Jefferson & Madison would be appalled. https://t.co/P4mELKgrOw

— Ted Cruz (@tedcruz) February 14, 2020

“VA House votes to give all of Virginia’s votes to California & New York. Because that’s definitely in the interest of Virginians. Jefferson & Madison would be appalled,” Cruz tweeted.

Exactly. Who votes to nullify the votes of the voters of their state? Blue state legislators, apparently.

So what happens when President Donald Trump wins the popular vote and they are all obligated to vote for him, however their state actually decided? Did they even think that through?

Now, all this is a bit academic as they aren’t going to get the states necessary to get to 270 to implement it. And even if they did, it likely would then be found to be unconstitutional for a variety of reasons, including that Compact Clause which would prohibit a state from entering into a compact with another state without congressional consent. There’s also the question of taking the power of the vote away from the actual electors which is inherent to the Constitutional provision.

The Supreme Court may take up cases that would clarify this soon. But in the meantime, Democrats keep trying to change the rules to help their chances of winning and it isn’t likely to work.