Democrats aren't done shedding tears over Al Gore's defeat in the 2000 presidential election, in which he won the popular vote nationwide but lost the Electoral College.
The summer before that election, some political pundits and pollsters predicted that Mr. Gore's campaign against Republican George W. Bush would go the other way, with the vice president losing the popular vote to the Texas governor but capturing a narrow majority of the Electoral College.
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No one in the Democratic Party decried that possibility seven years ago. They'd take the White House any way they could get it.
The same holds true today, even if Democrats have to do an end-run around the U.S. Constitution.
A movement to award the presidency to the candidate who captures the nation's popular vote -- sour grapes over Mr. Gore's loss -- is working its way through state legislatures from coast to coast. Earlier this month, it was introduced in the Nevada Legislature as Assembly Bill 384 by Jerry Claborn, D-Las Vegas.
The bill would guarantee that the candidate who receives the most individual votes nationwide receives Nevada's five Electoral College votes, regardless of how that candidate fares in the Silver State. The proposal would have to pass in states that total 270 electoral votes to take effect.
Individual states are already free to award their electoral votes any way they see fit. Maine and Nebraska, for example, award two electoral votes each to the winner of the state's popular vote, then one to the winner of each congressional district. Every other state employs a winner-take-all format.
But no one state is willing to lead the Democrats' charge for election by national popular vote. Without the backing of enough states to guarantee the presidency goes to the popular vote winner, this plan is political suicide, especially for smaller states.
Supporters of this plan abhor the vision of the Founders, who created the Electoral College to both recognize a federal union of sovereign states and assure small states that the country's major population centers wouldn't be able to swing every election.
Assembly Bill 384 is a dangerous proposal that would marginalize Nevada's newfound importance in presidential elections. Lawmakers should reject it.
