Going back to Derek Muller's points on this, American's clearly do not
currently have the right to have equal opportunities for presidential
candidates to each their locally fried food at fairs, or more fundamentally
a right to vote for presidential electors at all.  State legislatures have
granted voters the privilege of voting for president, and having those votes
rubber stamped by their electors either on a winner-take-all basis for the
state or allocating them by congressional district (as ME and NE do.)

I think it's reasonable for Americans to want that right, to vote for
president and to have every vote count equally.  This leads to much more
important results than kissing babies, eating fried food, or caring about
how much money candidates spend in each state.  Rather, it would lead to a
president who felt accountable to voters across the entire country, rather
than feeling accountable primarily to the voters who happen to live in the
10-12 closely divided states.  I don't really care where candidates spend
their money, but I do care where they poll, conduct focus groups, and engage
in town hall meetings -- those are the places where they are listening to
voters concerns and formulating policies to take those concerns into
account.  

The National Popular Vote plan would not create a permanent right to and
equal vote for president, but it would institutionalize a system by which
every vote counted equally and the candidate who got the most votes won.
Having state legislatures extend this privilege is no more of an end run
around the constitution than the actions of states already which have
individually, and over a great deal of time, extended the right for voters
to choose electors as opposed to having the legislature appoint them
directly.

As to legislatures who are opposed to the withdrawal provisions of the
National Popular Vote plan, or who believe that a nation that puts people on
the moon can't count (or recount) votes in a national election, they need
not join the plan.  Instead, they can continue to support a system that has
resulted in 4 of 56 presidential elections going to a second place popular
vote winner, and one where in every election most voters are left on the
sidelines of our most important election.

Derek Cressman