This review is by Matthew Cecere of Waterbury. He is a social studies teacher at a local public high school.

Steps are being taken to change the presidential vote, and that should give us some optimism.

Factoring in Vermont’s three electoral votes for president, we’re largely on the outside looking in as swing states will once again ultimately decide the election. It’s easy, then, to complain that our votes seem less valuable than the votes in these swing states.

Current Electoral College policy leaves us in a perpetually anxious state where there is always the potential for a discrepancy between the candidate who wins the national popular vote and the candidate who wins the required 270 electoral votes. Reforming the Electoral College or eliminating it altogether would require a constitutional amendment, which seems extremely unlikely in today’s partisan political climate.

The National Interstate Popular Vote Convention aims to change that. This interstate agreement allocates electoral votes to the winner of the national popular vote. It has already been enacted into law in many states (including Vermont). However, given the fact that the only two modern candidates who win the popular vote but lose the electoral vote are Democrats, this agreement was passed only in the generally more liberal-leaning state legislatures.

This has the potential to change. Currently, in swing states like Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina and Virginia, the agreement is making its way through state legislatures. If this and several other states are ratified, the states in the compact will pledge to distribute their electoral votes to the winner of the popular vote. This will happen regardless of state results and without a constitutional amendment.

More knowledgeable political forecasters and constitutional lawyers than I would probably advise anyone who believes this agreement will pass to exercise some caution, not to mention potential challenges at the Supreme Court. But the fact that we can see how this deal has evolved from a fantasy to a legitimate possibility should give many voters hope for change in our presidential elections.

Voters in states like Vermont may have reason to hope that their votes will have a national impact in the near future on a level we have never seen before in our republic.