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National Popular Vote junkets surface in televised debate

Junkets to exotic locations promoting the National Popular Vote (NPV) Interstate Compact to state legislators continue to make news, seven years after they first came to public notice in the wake of the Oklahoma Senate's surprising February 2014 vote to approve NPV, a plan that would have committed Oklahoma's presidential...

Posted by Michael Bates on August 15, 2021 12:07 AM

National Popular Vote continues to fund junkets for Oklahoma legislators

You'd think they'd give up, at long last, but advocates of the National Popular Vote compact continue to lobby Oklahoma legislators to agree to enslave our electoral vote to that of higher-population states on the coasts. Jamison Faught, the Muskogee Politico, recently dug through the legislators' financial disclosure statements for...

Posted by Michael Bates on September 22, 2019 10:50 PM

GOP electors ought to pick someone besides Trump, but they won't

Republican presidential electors have been deluged with pleas to vote for someone other than Donald Trump. Donald Trump is still unfit to be President of the United States (as is Hillary Clinton, as is Gary Johnson, each in their own way). I wish that, when the Electoral College meets tomorrow...

Posted by Michael Bates on December 18, 2016 9:21 PM

Election 2016: Oklahoma's seven electors

I almost left the top line of my ballot blank. When I was filling out my absentee ballot, I left the presidential race until the last. Neither Donald Trump nor Hillary Clinton nor Gary Johnson -- our only three choices in Oklahoma -- are fit to serve as president of...

Posted by Michael Bates on November 8, 2016 12:24 AM

National Popular Vote's Ray Haynes lobbying Oklahoma grassroots conservatives

Despite the outcry over the passage of SB 906 in the Oklahoma State Senate, a bill that would have subscribed the Reddest State in the Nation to a plan to undermine the constitutional method of electing presidents, advocates of the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact haven't given up on putting...

Posted by Michael Bates on September 10, 2014 10:01 PM

Legislators admit National Popular Vote junkets to Las Vegas, Miami

A tip of the hat to Sean Murphy of the Associated Press for his story about Oklahoma legislators taking junkets to Miami and Las Vegas, sponsored by FairVote, the non-profit that says it "has nurtured and supported the National Popular Vote plan" and "regularly works with advocacy leaders at the...

Posted by Michael Bates on February 20, 2014 12:44 AM

Oklahoma legislators invited to electoral vote "seminars" in exotic locales

Several Republican Oklahoma legislators have confirmed to BatesLine that they or their colleagues have been invited to all-expenses-paid "seminars" sponsored by National Popular Vote advocates and held in exotic, warm-weather locations. The legislators have mentioned locations including Scottsdale, Arizona, south Florida, Puerto Rico, Las Vegas, and St. Croix in...

Posted by Michael Bates on February 17, 2014 11:25 PM

Legislative fools back national popular vote

Two foolish Republicans in the Oklahoma legislature have succeed in moving forward a bill that would subject Oklahoma's electoral college votes to the results of the national popular vote. State Sen. Rob Johnson and State Rep. Don Armes are the sponsors of SB 906, and on Thursday, February 20, 2013,...

Posted by Michael Bates on February 21, 2013 1:46 AM

Election 2012: The six year old's electoral college picks

A couple of weeks ago, I was showing my six-year-old son the maps of past presidential election results on 270towin.com. We scrolled through the years, as the nation's early parties came and went, noticed odd split-state results, and then looked at the projected map for this year, with red, blue,...

Posted by Michael Bates on November 6, 2012 5:54 AM

Dinner table discussion: Electoral college, faithless electors, third-party effects, and runoffs

Somehow tonight around the dinner table we got to talking about the Electoral College -- the 538 people who really get to vote for President of the United States. I talked about the two groups of seven Oklahomans that will be on our November 6 ballot -- seven pledged to...

Posted by Michael Bates on August 31, 2012 10:34 PM