Days after Wisconsin Democrats locked down a trifecta, Sen. Kelda Roys and Rep. Clinton Anderson named their next target: Wisconsin’s presidential electors.
“National popular vote will be something that we’ll prioritize early in the session,” Roys told The New York Times. Anderson said he plans to reintroduce the legislation. “I want to make it a priority, but it’s not the thing I heard on the doors I knocked,” he added.
Voters spent 2026 talking about grocery bills and property taxes. Democratic legislators spent the week after Election Day discussing a deal that would strip Wisconsin of the power to decide where its electoral votes go.
Wisconsin Would Award Electors Against Its Own Voters
The National Popular Vote Interstate Compact does not abolish the Electoral College. It hijacks it. Member states pledge to award all their electors to whichever ticket wins the most votes nationwide, even if that ticket loses their state. The deal kicks in only when states holding at least 270 electoral votes have joined by July 20 of an election year.
Eighteen states and the District of Columbia have already signed on, totaling 222 electoral votes, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. Virginia joined in 2026. Wisconsin’s 10 would bring the compact to 232. Pennsylvania, Michigan, Arizona, and Nevada, all under Democratic trifectas, hold another 51. If enough of those states join, the compact goes live for 2028.
Wisconsin Democrats have been at this for years. Assembly Bill 1152, led by Anderson, was introduced March 13, 2026, and died in committee without a hearing. Senate Bill 1117, with Roys among its authors, met the same fate. Roys pitched a version in 2010 when Democrats last ran Madison. They could not pass it then. With Crowley headed to the governor’s office and majorities in both houses, they plan to try again.
Voters spent 2026 talking about grocery bills and property taxes. Democratic legislators spent the week after Election Day discussing a deal that would strip Wisconsin of the power to decide where its electoral votes go.
Apply the compact to real Wisconsin results and the scam is obvious. In 2004, John Kerry carried Wisconsin by 11,384 votes. George W. Bush won the national popular vote. Under this scheme, Wisconsin’s electors would have gone to Bush. In 2016, Donald Trump carried Wisconsin by 22,748 votes after the recount. Hillary Clinton won the national popular vote. Wisconsin’s electors would have gone to Clinton. Your vote for president would still count in a national pile but would no longer decide Wisconsin’s electors.
No Amendment. No National Recount. Just a Side Deal.
The Constitution already provides a way to change how we elect presidents: an amendment. That requires two-thirds of Congress and three-fourths of the states. Democrats do not have the votes, so they are shopping for an end run. Whether this kind of agreement needs congressional consent under the Compact Clause is disputed, and a Congressional Research Service report flags substantial litigation if the compact takes effect.
The compact also has no national recount. Close presidential elections get recounted state by state under state law. A razor-thin national popular vote would leave Wisconsin officials accepting other states’ certified numbers with no way to reopen them. Assembly Bill 1152 even requires Wisconsin election officials to treat other states’ vote statements as conclusive.
Then comes the geography. Wisconsin is the 20th-largest state by population. Presidential campaigns come here because 10 electoral votes can decide the map. Under a national popular-vote system, the smart play is to run up margins in Los Angeles, New York, Chicago, and Houston. Dairy country, the Fox Valley, and northern Wisconsin become afterthoughts. Nevada’s Democratic governor understood that in 2019 when he vetoed his state’s version, warning it could leave Nevada with “a greatly diminished voice” in national contests.
Anderson admitted this was not what he heard at the doors. Roys still wants it early. Crowley has not publicly drawn a line against it. Wisconsin voters just handed Democrats total control of state government. Handing California and New York control of Wisconsin’s electors should not be the thank-you gift.
