Dear Editor,

This year, America marks 250 years since the Declaration of Independence. This should make us proud. It should also make us honest.

When my son was 11, we walked the Lexington battlefield in Massachusetts. As we crossed that grounds, I told him our family descends from the youngest person to carry a musket there that day. He was just a boy. He stood in a different unit from his father. Father and son, both there. Father and son, both fighting for freedom. Father and son, both fighting for the right of a people to govern themselves.

Then I looked at my son and said, “He was only two years older than you are now.” That moment has stayed with me.

So has another truth: Our roots in the American Revolution run through both Massachusetts and Virginia. We also descend from Richard Bland of Virginia, who argued for the rights of the colonies before independence was declared.

So, this year, as we mark 250 years since the Declaration, we should ask a simple question: Have we finished what those brave men, women, and children started? Not yet.

We elect our mayors by popular vote. We elect our governors by popular vote, but we still do not count every vote equally when we choose our president. Try explaining that to a child, it is awkward.

Democracy rests on a simple idea: The person with the most votes should win. One person, one vote. Today, that is not how presidential politics works in practice. A few swing states get most of the attention. The rest of the country is pushed aside. Millions of Americans in red states and blue states alike are told, in effect, that their votes matter less in the one race that belongs to all of us. That is not fairness. That is neglect.

There is another way. It is called the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact. It does not end the Electoral College. It uses it the way the US Constitution allows. The constitution gives state legislatures the power to decide how their electoral votes are awarded. Under this plan, states agree to give their electoral votes to the candidate who wins the most votes in all 50 states and the District of Columbia. No constitutional amendment is needed.

Virginia is now close to joining. The Bill has passed both houses of the General Assembly. If Governor Abigail Spanberger signs it, Virginia would become the 19th jurisdiction in the compact, joining states such as Vermont, Delaware, Maine, and Illinois. Virginia is not some side note in this story. It is one of the places where the American idea of self-government first took root. If Virginia joins now, it will not be breaking with the founding; it will be honouring it.

This is not a radical idea; it is an American one, and it should not belong to one party. This is not about helping Republicans. It is not about helping Democrats. It is about trusting the people. This idea is not left-wing or right-wing. It is not urban or rural. It is not black or white. It is patriotic.

Of course, there are still obstacles. More states would need to join. Lawmakers would need to act. Courts may weigh in. None of this is certain, but history does not move only when success is guaranteed, it moves when people decide that something is right. And what better time than now?

What better way to honour America’s 250th birthday than by taking one more step towards becoming the democracy we have always said we are?

The people who stood at Lexington did not risk their lives so future generations could accept minority rule. They did not fight so Americans would shrug when the person with the most votes loses. They fought for freedom. They fought for self-government. They fought for the right of the people to decide their own future. It is time to finish what they started.

Let the majority rule.

Ben Jealous

Former president

National Association for the Advancement of Colored People