LADY LAKE, Fla. -Support Popular Vote has announced a national TV buy aimed at drawing attention to the fact that, once primary season is over, 225 million Americans are relegated to mere spectators in the presidential election process. The first ad in support of the National Popular Vote Bill will air during the Presidential Republican Debate on Fox News December 15th.

“Our current system allows the candidates to ignore voters in three-quarters of our states in the general election and allows a second place candidate to win the presidency. This has already happened 4 times out of the last 56 elections – not to mention several that were close calls,” says Tom Golisano, National Spokesperson for Support Popular Vote.

The ad, called “Chalkboard” , features an election for class president in which the second place vote getter wins by virtue of an arbitrary rule. In real life that rule is the winner-take-all system – a system that is not shared by all states and is not part of the U.S. Constitution. The National Popular Vote Bill will work within the Electoral College and the U.S. Constitution to guarantee the presidency to the winner of the most popular votes in all fifty states. TheNational Popular Vote Bill, which needs the support of states equaling 270 electoral votes (one-half of electoral votes needed to win the presidency) is gaining support all over the country and has already garnered almost 50% (132 electoral votes) of the electoral votes needed. This is a national effort, and it’s possible this could take effect in time for the 2012 Presidential Election.

“We agree with 70% of the Americans polled who believe that the election of our president should be based on the same rules as every other election in this country and that is that the candidate with the most votes should win,” added Golisano. “Hopefully during the upcoming debates the candidates will be asked how they stand on this issue.”

Source: Support Popular Vote