To the editor:

I wish to address technical misleading statements from a Jan. 21 letter in the Alexandria Times, “Popular Vote Interstate Compact is Unconstitutional.”

It would be unconstitutional if states agreed to change votes if another state were to dictate it.

The national popular vote winner being awarded the electoral votes of Virginia is legal now. All it takes is a law, prior to the 2024 election, that passes both chambers of the Legislature and is signed by the governor. The only thing that this “Interstate Compact” agreement does is set the starting date for Virginia to make this change in its law regarding the rewarding of Electoral College votes, after they set it into law.

The condition for Virginia’s own law to come into effect is when enough states representing more than 270 electoral college votes have set their own individual laws regarding the awarding of their own states’ Electoral College votes.

I find it convenient when some people support states’ rights, then sometimes don’t. Also, if enough states were to set laws awarding their Electoral College votes to the popular vote winner – and that was the only reason President Joe Biden lost to former Vice-President Mike Pence in the hypothetical matchup the letter writer mentioned – then I would support it.

That is called having integrity in my support for democracy. I don’t just support it when it is convenient.

-Henry Johnson, Alexandria