Meet Activist Pam Berg

LWVUS NPV Task Force profile: Pam Berg of Virginia 

In the state of Virginia, Arlington League member Pam Berg has been a strong promoter for National Popular Vote legislation. She has presented to the Virginia State Senate, has had training from NPV, Inc. in San Francisco, and continues to make good use of her expertise and talents as liaison between the Virginia League and NPV, Inc. Below are questions she answered to help shed light on what she has been doing to promote NPV in Virginia.  

Please tell us a little about your role in your League.  

I serve as the Voter Access Committee Chair. Our committee is responsible for all voting issues except security and registration. We're responsible for voter education when new voting laws are passed (of which there were a lot in Virginia this year), restoration of rights for felons, and any other voting issues that don't neatly fall under security or registration. Additionally, I am a member of the Redistricting Committee.  

Why do you support NPV legislation?  

I support NPV because I don't think that the election the president every four years should rest solely on the choices of battleground states. I believe that higher voter turnout would occur if people believed that their vote really mattered. Every other election in this country (mayor, state representatives, Congressional House & Senate representatives) is won by obtaining the most votes; that simple method should be used for the presidential election as well. Additionally - and related to voter turnout - if you're a Republican living in Massachusetts or a Democrat living in Alabama, it really doesn't matter if you vote for all intents and purposes (in the national election). No vote in any state should be wasted; all votes should be on equal footing across the board.  

What prompted you to focus your energy on passage of NPV? 

I had never been politically active before I retired, but I always felt that the Electoral College seemed like an odd contradiction. Like many people, I just trusted the wisdom of the founders and figured they must have had a good reason to establish it. The more I learned about it, however, the more I discovered that there really wasn't some sort of obscure ancient wisdom establishing indirect elections as sacrosanct somehow. Given that the Electoral College doesn't even function - nor has it ever - in the way it was designed to function, what point does it serve? It unnecessarily convolutes a relatively straight  
forward process and further complicates a relatively uncomplicated undertaking. The concept of the Electoral College was supposed to be a break-glass-in-case-of-emergency' tool, but the rapid follow-on of additional electoral elements such as winner-take-all after the founding period made the Electoral College's original purpose obsolete right from the beginning.  

How are you (or have you been) educating your League members and community groups about NPV?  

We have been having NPV tables at local events so that people who have questions can come and talk to us. We have also been providing small group sessions for NPV education.  

What other groups support (or have supported) your League's effort to pass NPV?  

National Popular Vote Inc., of course, supports the League's work towards NPV. Beyond that, I can't speak for support specifically from other groups, but I will say that one of the nice things about being a part of the NPV group is that we're able to cross-pollinate with other groups that share like interests. For example, if I'm at a redistricting meeting, I'll inevitably run into folks who are interested to hear about NPV (and may join the effort). I'm in contact with people who are volunteering for efforts like ranked choice voting and getting money out of politics, etc. Because of that, they email me things they see relevant to NPV and I email them things I see related to their causes. Most of us don't have time to volunteer for everything we want to do, but we can count on a larger network of sorts to help all of us as we trade our various findings around the Internet.  

What has been (or was) the greatest obstacle in your efforts to advance NPV?  

I think the most difficult part of it is dealing with people who have an emotional attachment to the Electoral College. It's understandable, but unsustainable. Most of us are educated to revere the founding fathers and in many ways that makes it difficult to second-guess them. It seems daunting and intimidating to question their wisdom. But the fact is, they couldn't decide how to do the presidential election and delegated it to the states as a result. Thus, in my view, the existence of the Electoral College is not something that the founders wanted per se as it is more what they settled on in the absence of a suitable agreement.  

What have been the most effective arguments for passage of NPV legislation?  

I believe there is a fabulous simplicity in the concept: whoever gets the most votes is the winner. I also believe that to maintain any indirect election system now is to lean backwards rather than forwards. Some states are going to have a problem with this and there's no doubt it's controversial, but I believe the value of a single individual vote - everyone's single vote - is the foundation of democracy and nothing should hinder the clear reflection of that direct correlation: one person, one vote.  

On a personal level, what has been the most gratifying aspect of your involvement with the NPV initiative?  

Frankly, it's NPV Inc's (John Koza's group) generous support of their volunteers. They provided a full day training in San Francisco on their dime. That tells me that the organization is committed to equipping its volunteers with the training needed to be effective. As someone new to volunteering (like myself), I was surprised by this and encouraged by it. Their investment in me makes me want to do whatever I can to help them.