HARTFORD — Democratic Gov. Dannel P. Malloy and Lt. Gov. Nancy Wyman are throwing support to legislation that would require Connecticut to join a group of states wanting to pool their Electoral College votes for the presidential candidate who wins the popular vote.
Both argue every American's vote should be counted equally.
Wednesday's announcement by Malloy and Wyman comes as lawmakers hear testimony on numerous bills that would have Connecticut join the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact, which 11 states have signed onto since 2006. There's also a bill that would endorse the current Electoral College system.
Some lawmakers, mostly Democrats, have voiced frustration with seeing another candidate secure the presidency without winning the popular vote.
"I think the real problem is the erosion of trust in the whole thing, when people see over and over again that the person who gets the most votes, and in this time, substantially more votes, they still don't win," said Denise Merrill, Connecticut's Democratic Secretary of the State.
Republicans feel this debate is due, in large part, to sour grapes over Donald Trump's upset win over Hillary Clinton.
"The reason why you see a certain population of people show up is because of the results of the last election and I think the people on the losing side of that are obviously more concerned about that than the folks on the winning side," said State Rep. Rob Sampson, R-Southington. "I don't think it's something we should be concentrating on when we have much larger problems."