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Sources & Citations

Every numerical claim on this site links here. Civic education only works if the facts are right. If you find an error, please email hello@oneamericanonevote.org and it will be corrected.

Important: Statistics about NPVIC membership and electoral-vote totals change over time as state legislatures act. Always confirm current figures at nationalpopularvote.com/state-status before publishing or quoting numbers from this site.

[1] 2020 Campaign Events Concentration

Claim used: ~96% of 2020 general-election presidential campaign events occurred in roughly 12 swing states; small states such as Wyoming, Vermont, the Dakotas, Alaska, Delaware, Rhode Island, Montana, and Idaho received zero general-election events.

Primary source: National Popular Vote, Inc. tracks general-election campaign events between the conventions and Election Day. Their analysis is the most-cited source for this statistic. See: nationalpopularvote.com and FairVote's tracker.

Verification status: Site editor should confirm the exact percentage and state list against NPV's published 2020 tracker before launch.

[2] Wisconsin 2018 State Assembly

Claim used: In Wisconsin's 2018 State Assembly elections, Democratic candidates received roughly 53% of the statewide vote and won 36 of 99 seats.

Primary source: Wisconsin Elections Commission canvass results (2018 General Election). Widely reported by the Brennan Center for Justice and the Wisconsin State Journal.

Verification status: The shape of the result (Democrats winning the popular vote but a minority of seats) is well-documented; the exact percentages should be reconfirmed from the Wisconsin Elections Commission before publication.

[3] North Carolina 2018 U.S. House

Claim used: In the 2018 U.S. House elections in North Carolina, Republicans won approximately half of the statewide congressional vote and won 10 of 13 seats.

Primary source: North Carolina State Board of Elections canvass results, 2018. Note: NC's 2018 result was particularly contested because the 9th District result was vacated due to absentee ballot fraud and a special election was held in 2019. Some sources cite the original count, others the rerun.

Verification status: Confirm against NC State Board of Elections official totals and decide whether to reference 2018 originals or the 2019 special election.

[4] Brennan Center on Gerrymandering Impact

Claim used: Partisan gerrymandering can swing more than a dozen U.S. House seats per cycle — potentially enough to flip control of Congress.

Primary source: Brennan Center for Justice has published multiple analyses on this; see “Extreme Maps” (2017) and ongoing coverage at brennancenter.org.

Verification status: The original 2017 Brennan paper estimated 16–17 seats; later analyses have varied. Cite the most current figure when possible and link to the Brennan source.

[5] Wasted Votes in Non-Competitive States

Claim used: Tens of millions of Americans live in states whose presidential outcomes are predictable; those voters effectively receive no presidential campaign attention.

Primary source: National Popular Vote, Inc. and FairVote analyses of campaign-event tracking and state competitiveness ratings. The Cook Political Report's Partisan Voting Index identifies which states are predictable.

Verification status: The qualitative claim is well-supported. Specific numerical estimates (e.g., “65 million”) appear in NPV literature but should be checked against the most recent edition before quoting.

[6] NPVIC Current Status

Claim used: The National Popular Vote Interstate Compact has been adopted by more than a dozen jurisdictions including the District of Columbia. Maine joined in 2024.

Primary source: nationalpopularvote.com/state-status — the official tracker. Maine’s 2024 enactment was widely reported by the Bangor Daily News, the Portland Press Herald, and the Associated Press.

Verification status: Critical to verify before launch. The current EV count and state list change as legislatures act. Update site copy whenever a new state joins.

Madison and Lincoln quotes

Lincoln, Gettysburg Address (1863): “Government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.” — Verifiable. Multiple official transcriptions exist; the version above is the “Bliss copy,” the most commonly quoted. National Archives.

An earlier draft of this site quoted James Madison, Federalist No. 10: “The republican principle requires… that the sense of the majority should prevail.” That phrasing could not be verified as a direct Madison quotation in Federalist 10 and has been removed. If you wish to use Madison, quote directly from a confirmed text and link to the Library of Congress edition of the Federalist.

Reference organizations

  • National Popular Vote, Inc.nationalpopularvote.com — The lead organization driving NPVIC adoption. Their book Every Vote Equal is the canonical reference.
  • FairVotefairvote.org — Ranked-choice voting and electoral reform research.
  • Brennan Center for Justicebrennancenter.org — Redistricting and gerrymandering research.
  • Cook Political Reportcookpolitical.com — State competitiveness ratings (PVI).
  • U.S. National Archivesarchives.gov — Founding documents, Lincoln transcripts.

How to flag an error

This site is run by volunteers. If you find a misstatement of fact, please email hello@oneamericanonevote.org with: (1) the page and exact text, (2) the correct figure, and (3) a primary source. Corrections will be made promptly and noted in the commit history of the public repository.