A bill that could help fundamentally alter how the country elects the president passed through the Assembly Tuesday, but it’ll need to be approved by the Senate and signed by the governor before becoming law.

The bill, Assembly Bill 186, titled “National Popular Vote Compact,” would add Nevada to an agreement between a growing number of states to award their Electoral College votes to whomever wins the national popular vote for president.

Lawmakers approved the bill largely along party votes, 23-17, with no Republicans voting in favor of the bill.

Twelve states and the District of Columbia have joined the national popular vote interstate compact so far, which would go into effect if states that have 270 electoral votes all join the compact.

Last month Colorado joined the compact adding its nine electoral votes to the 172 votes from states that are already members of the compact.

Nevada, with its six electoral votes, would bring the tally to 187. It takes 270 to win the presidential office.

The bill would not abolish the Electoral College but would bypass the Twelfth Amendment which requires the election of the president and vice president be made via the Electoral College. The Constitution allows states to award their Electoral College votes in a manner of their choosing.

During the bill’s initial hearing, supporters of the bill included progressive groups like the League of Women Voters, Battle Born Progress, ACLU of Nevada who called the electoral college “antiquated” and argued that the current system gives some votes more power than others due to the way electoral votes are assigned to the states.

The measure was opposed by the Nevada Republican Party and affiliated groups, during the bill’s first hearing.

Nevada Republican Party Vice-Chair Jim DeGraffenreid argued the compact favors heavily-populated states to the detriment of smaller states like Nevada, calling the compact a “constitutional trick to neuter the Electoral College” that would “reduce Nevada’s importance” possibly making the state “irrelevant.”

“To suggest that a state should disregard its own voters and instead follow the will of voters in some other state is the exact opposite of what the Framers intended,” DeGraffenreid said.

Analysis shortly after the 2016 presidential election found that a vote from Wyoming weighs 3.6 times more than an individual Californian’s vote, and the relative power of voters in small states is expected to become even more pronounced as the county’s population continues to concentrate in cities and away from rural states.