The United States Constitution requires the election of President and Vice President by presidential electors from each state who are appointed in the manner directed by each state legislature under the federal constitutional power granted to states by the Presidential Electors Clause. (U.S. Const. Art. II, § 1, cl. 2, U.S. Const. Amend. XII) The United States Supreme Court has stated that the Presidential Electors Clause “concede[s] plenary power to the state legislatures in the matter of the appointment of electors” and “recognizes that the people act through their representatives in the legislature, and leaves it to the legislature exclusively to define the method of effecting the object.” (McPherson v. Blacker, 146 U.S. 1, 27, 35 (1892)) The Supreme Court has also stated that the Presidential Electors Clause was “so framed that congressional and federal influence might be excluded” and, as a result, “the appointment and mode of appointment of electors belong exclusively to the states under the [C]onstitution of the United States.” (McPherson, 146 U.S. at 35)
Under existing law in Nevada, the Legislature has exercised its power to define the method of appointing this State's presidential electors by enacting the Uniform Faithful Presidential Electors Act. (NRS 298.005-298.089) Existing law requires each nominee for presidential elector and alternate to sign a pledge to vote only for the candidates for President and Vice President who receive the highest number of votes in this State at the general election. (NRS 298.045) The nominees for presidential elector whose candidates for President and Vice President receive the highest number of votes in this State at the general election are the presidential electors, and the presidential electors may vote only for the candidates for President and Vice President who receive the highest number of votes in this State at the general election. (NRS 298.065, 298.075)
The amendment to the Nevada Constitution proposed by this resolution enacts the National Popular Vote Compact. If the Compact is effective and applies to a presidential election: (1) the chief election official of each member state will determine which slate of candidates for President and Vice President wins the national popular vote and will designate that presidential slate as the national popular vote winner; and (2) except in the case of a tie in the national popular vote, the nominees for presidential elector whose slate of candidates for President and Vice President is the national popular vote winner become the presidential electors. The amendment to the Nevada Constitution proposed by this resolution also provides that if the Compact is effective and applies to a presidential election, the presidential electors shall, with limited exception, mark their presidential elector ballots for the national popular vote winner. The amendment to the Nevada Constitution proposed by this resolution also provides that Nevada may withdraw from and rejoin the Compact via statute.
If this resolution is passed by the 2023 Legislature, it must also be passed by the next Legislature and then approved and ratified by the voters in an election before the proposed amendments become part of the Nevada Constitution. However, for the Compact to take effect, states cumulatively possessing a majority of the electoral votes must enact the Compact in substantially the same form and the enactments by such states must have taken effect in each state.