The National Popular Vote Compact is an agreement between states that they'll cast their electoral votes for the winner of the nationwide popular vote in a presidential election. If Virginia enters the compact, all 13 of its electoral votes would go to the winner of the national popular vote, regardless of the outcome in the Commonwealth.
Senator Chris Head, a Republican from Botetourt County, says the Electoral College was created for an important reason.
"So that you don't have what was referred to then as the tyranny of the majority," Head said during Monday's debate. "Every state would be able to have the people of that state, sovereign states, would be represented appropriately."
Senate Democratic Majority Leader Scott Surovell says the Electoral College is an idea whose time has passed.
"The Electoral College is not something we should be lauding and patting ourselves on the back and saying what a wonderful thing it is. It has arrogant, aristocratic and racist origins, and its consequences continue to play itself out today," Surovell argued Monday. "And this is an attempt to mitigate the effects of that because amending the constitution in this regard is probably impossible."
Senators approved the bill for Virginia to enter the National Popular Vote Compact on a party-line vote this week. Now it's heading over to the House of Delegates.
So far, 17 states and the District of Columbia have joined the compact.
