© Dr_Flash/Shutterstock
The Oklahoma Senate
voted Wednesday to pass a bill that would add Oklahoma to the growing list of states working to ensure that the presidential candidate receiving the most votes becomes president. It became the first legislative body in a GOP-leaning state to embrace the
National Popular Vote, an interstate compact that would ensure that the candidate who garners the most votes in each presidential election would also receive a majority in the Electoral College.
Oklahoma is not a politically competitive states in presidential elections. No Democratic nominee has carried the Sooner State since President Lyndon Baines Johnson in his
1964 landslide victory - and Mitt Romney received
more than twice as many votes as President Barack Obama in the 2012 race, carrying
all 77 counties. As such, candidates on both sides of the aisle focus their travel and advertising budgets elsewhere, largely ignoring the state's
3.8 million residents.
SB 906, which passed
28 to 18 and now proceeds to the Oklahoma House, would add Oklahoma to a growing group of states that have agreed to automatically give their electoral votes to the national popular vote winner, regardless of how the candidate does in their state. The compact, which has already been endorsed by
ten jurisdictions possessing 136 electoral votes, would only go into effect when at least 270 electoral votes are governed by the compact. Oklahoma's 9 electoral votes would bring the count to 145, about 53.7 percent of the needed total.
Comment: Oil spills are devastating to the environment and also toxic for humans:
What Sickens People in Oil Spills, and How Badly, Is Anybody's Guess
The Consequences of 'Drill, Baby Drill': More Than 90 Oil Spills a Day in the U.S.
U.S. railroad oil spills in 2013 surpassed previous four decades combined
Polluted America