A bill that would add Oregon to the list of states awarding Electoral College votes only to presidential candidates who win the national popular vote appears to have stalled in the Oregon Legislature.

Passage of Senate Bill 1512 appeared to be almost a given at the beginning of the legislative session, especially since Senate President Peter Courtney, who had singlehandedly killed similar proposals year after year, changed course and decided to back it.

The Senate Rules Committee, which is led by Senate Majority Leader Ginny Burdick, held a hearing on the national popular vote proposal during the second day of the legislative session. But it's made no progress since then and is not scheduled for a committee vote, signaling that the bill is set to die.

The central hang-up: Courtney, the top senator, has said he'll only let his chamber pass a national popular vote bill if the question is then referred to voters. But the California group pushing the national popular vote concept and its founder, wealthy entrepreneur John Koza, don't want voters to decide the national popular vote issue. Koza has previously told The Oregonian/OregonLive that legislators alone should dictate how their state's Electoral College votes are awarded.

Koza's opposition to Senate Bill 1512 presents an unusual irony, given Koza supports the national popular vote concept and has spent heavily to influence Courtney. Koza's group launched anti-Courtney campaign last year and has spent nearly $100,000 to place anti-Courtney ads on television, plaster billboards with messages critical of the top senator and even recruit candidates to run against him – all to sway Courtney on the popular vote concept.

Ten states – including Washington and California – and the District of Columbia have already signed on to the national popular vote movement. The national popular vote compact doesn't take effect until states with a total of 270 electoral votes have joined in. The current number is 165.

Calls for states to join the movement swelled after Donald Trump was elected president. Trump is one of five people elected president who did not win the popular vote. The others are John Quincy Adams in 1824, Rutherford B. Hayes in 1876, Benjamin Harrison in 1888 and George W. Bush in 2000.

Despite Oregon lawmakers' slow-walking on the popular vote bill, many members of the public have called the Capitol to urge its passage. Rick Osborn, spokesman for the Senate Democrats, said, "Our phone's been ringing off the hook about it."

-- Gordon R. Friedman

503-221-8209; @GordonRFriedman