National Popular Vote statute violates Colorado Constitution says DU law professor

A unique and obscure provision in Colorado’s Constitution means that the National Popular Vote Compact (NPV) statute enacted by the legislature last year is unconstitutional, says David Kopel, Adjunct Professor of Advanced Constitutional Law at the University of Denver’s Sturm College of Law....

In a forthcoming article in the Denver Law Review Forum, Kopel analyzes the impact of Section 20 of the Colorado Constitution’s Schedule on the validity of the law joining Colorado to the NPV compact....

But for all elections after 1876, section 20 says, “The general assembly shall provide that after the year eighteen hundred and seventy-six the electors of the electoral college shall be chosen by direct vote of the people.”

This, says Kopel, precludes the statutory scheme passed by the Democrat-majority legislature to require Colorado’s Secretary of State to appoint the slate of electors affiliated with the candidate who wins the national popular vote....