Meet Activist Ute Haker, PhD

LWVUS NPV Task Force profile: Dr. Ute Haker of New Mexico 

Ute Haker is a League member who has a varied background. With degrees in both humanities and biology, she has worked at the Los Alamos National Laboratory and was involved with the Human Genome Project. Her active role with the League in New Mexico has played an important part in bringing about NPV legislation. 

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

I am a member of the League of Women Voters of Santa Fe County in New Mexico and helped our local League play a key role in successfully passing the National Popular Vote bill during New Mexico’s 2019 state legislature and having our then freshly elected governor, Michelle Lujan Grisham, sign it into law. In addition, I also have assisted with the League’s voter registration drives and candidate forums. 

Why do you support National Popular Vote legislation?

The United States has come a long way in voting rights, but in 2020 we still have a long way to go to make every vote equal. To my mind, the most widespread, and baked-in, form of American voter suppression is the state-based winner-take-all method of counting, and discounting, voters’ popular votes in the U.S. presidential elections, which all of the states had adopted by 1880 as a result of the rise of the political parties and their increasing self-interests. Maine and Nebraska changed their presidential elections to congressional methods in 1969 and 1992, respectively, but their current district mechanism is less important than the fact that their departures from the winner-take-all set-up illustrate that state laws are not written in stone and can be changed by state legislatures as granted under the U.S. Constitution. 

What prompted you to focus your energy on the passage of the National Popular Vote?

For me, the National Popular Vote is fundamental. It’s about the structure—the bones—of our democracy and positively impacts a vast array of common-good goals and priorities, from election finance reform to gun control and climate change measures, because all of them likely will find a much more conducive federal environment under U.S. presidents elected by the majority of voters across the land, not just the majority of voters in a given state. 

How are you (or have you been) educating your League members and community groups about the National Popular Vote?

I played a key role in organizing two well-attended public National Popular Vote forums hosted by the League of Women Voters of Santa Fe County in November 2018 and January 2019 ahead of New Mexico’s 2019 legislative session. Surrounding the events, I placed advertisements and community calendar entries in local newspapers and online and composed related League articles and event notices. In addition, New Mexicans were able to familiarize themselves with the National Popular Vote through an informative National Popular Vote-New Mexico website that I had created and maintained.

What other groups support (or have supported) your League’s effort to pass the National Popular Vote?

I am a strong believer in cross-memberships in a wide variety of organizations not only as a reflection of my various interests but also to “cross-pollinate,” so to speak. As such, I have spoken about the National Popular Vote, both formally and informally, in many different settings over the years. I also founded my own National Popular Vote-focused, state-wide “Indivisible” group in early 2017 and was a steering committee member of a state-wide coalition of National Popular Vote-endorsing citizen groups.  

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

The greatest obstacle has been trying to dispel the common misconception that the Electoral College is the primary disadvantage in U.S. presidential elections rather than the winner-take-all state laws, which determine how the participating states’ popular votes are counted—or not—before the results reach the Electoral College as such. The distinction between the Electoral College and the state-based winner-take-all method is important not only for accuracy but also because eliminating the Electoral College would require a constitutional amendment while the winner-take-all state laws can be—and in many cases already have been—replaced by National Popular Vote state laws. 

What have been the most effective arguments for passage of National Popular Vote legislation?

The nonpartisan National Popular Vote bill guarantees the U.S. presidency to the candidate who receives the most popular votes across all 50 states and the District of Columbia, thus removing the risk of electing second-place-winner presidents and eliminating the large-scale voting inequalities of the state-based winner-take-all method, which divides the country into “battleground” and “spectator” states and in the process renders a stunning 75 percent of U.S. states politically irrelevant. In addition, because the National Popular Vote honors all votes nationwide, not just the majority popular votes in each state, it increases the probability of higher voter turnouts. 

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

The most gratifying aspect has been the pride I feel in being part of a national movement to overcome the 140-year-long voter suppression that the winner-take-all state laws have brought to U.S. presidential elections since 1880. As a woman, doing so within the context of the League of Women Voters seems particularly fitting since the League was founded to help American women voters exercise their voting rights.