New Mexico gov signs bill granting electoral votes to national popular vote winner

New Mexico is the latest state to sign into law legislation that would give the state’s Electoral College votes to the presidential candidate with the most popular votes nationwide.

Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham (D) signed the legislation Wednesday to officially add New Mexico to a joint compact with more than a dozen other states, according to the Santa Fe New Mexican.

The joint compact only goes into effect if enough states sign on to bring the total Electoral College votes up to at least 270, enough to win the presidency.

With New Mexico now on board, 14 states and the District of Columbia have enacted into law the National Popular Vote bill, according to organizers of the initiative, comprising 189 electoral votes, still well short of 270.

{mosads}The purpose of the compact is to ensure a president who has less popular votes cannot be elected president, as was the case in 2016 when President Trump won the election despite garnering roughly 3 million fewer votes than Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton.

Advocates argue the compact gives smaller states not typically considered important in presidential elections a greater say.

“Now, every vote in every state will count in every presidential election,” state Sen. Mimi Stewart (D) wrote in a post on Twitter after the bill was signed by Lujan Grisham.