On February 21, 2018, a coalition of law firms led by Boies Schiller Flexner LLP coordinated the filing of four lawsuits in four states on behalf of a diverse group of Democrats and Republicans whose votes for President don’t matter in the general election under the winner-take-all system.

We are filing suit against officials in California, a solid blue state with 55 electoral votes, on behalf of Republicans who say their votes for President are being discarded when California predictably nominates a slate of all Democratic electors. The plaintiffs in California are comedian and actor Paul Rodriguez, Republican State Assemblyman representing the 76th District, Rocky Chavez (both are Republicans who voted for Donald Trump in 2016), and California League Of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC).

We are filing suit against officials in Texas, a solid red state with 38 electoral votes, on behalf of Democrats who say their votes for President are being discarded when Texas predictably nominates a slate of all Republican electors. We are also claiming in Texas that the winner-take-all system violates the Voting Rights Act, because it fails to give meaningful effect to the preferences of Latino and African-American voters, whose votes have historically been diluted in Texas. The plaintiffs in Texas are the League Of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC), Rev. Joseph C. Parker, Jr. of Austin, former president of LULAC Hector Flores of Duncanville, Mary Ramos of Houston, Lupe Torres of San Antonio, and Ray Velarde of El Paso. They represent Latino and African-American Democratic voters residing in Texas.

We are filing suit against officials in Massachusetts, a solid blue state with 11 electoral votes, on behalf of Republicans who say their votes for President are being discarded when Massachusetts predictably nominates a slate of all Democratic electors. The plaintiffs in Massachusetts are former Republican Governor William Weld, R.J. Lyman, and Robert Capodilupo.

We filed a suit against officials in South Carolina, a solid red state with 9 electoral votes, on behalf of Democrats whose votes for President are being discarded when South Carolina predictably nominates a slate of all Republican electors. We are also claiming that the winner-take-all system in South Carolina violates the Voting Rights Act, because it fails to give meaningful effect to the preferences of African-American voters, whose votes have historically been diluted in South Carolina. The plaintiffs in South Carolina are Cory C. Alpert of Columbia, Benjamin Horne of Greenville, and Charlette Plummer-Wooley of North Augusta.

The 14th Amendment to the Constitution establishes a principle of equality that has been applied to systems that affect the weight of a citizen’s vote. This is the principle of “one person, one vote.” Roughly speaking, that principle requires that governments weigh the vote of citizens as equally as possible. As much as possible, my vote should be worth the same as your vote. By ignoring the votes of anyone who did not vote for the winner of the popular vote in a specific state, the way we elect our president currently violates that basic, constitutionally protected right.

Absolutely not. The essence of our case is the principle that votes should be counted equally. The NPV project is that principle, perfected. If the NPV project succeeds, then the president would be elected by a system that counted everyone’s vote equally. That’s why we strongly support the NPV project. But we can’t put all our eggs in one basket. While NPV would take many years to accomplish, Equal Votes is a change that can make our elections more democratic in time for the 2020 election.

In fact, we think Equal Votes and the NPV project work well together. We explain our argument in greater detail in this blog post.