Nevada is now on the cusp of joining the nationwide push to elect the president purely by popular vote.

The state Senate on Tuesday passed Assembly Bill 186, which would see the Silver State join a compact with 15 others that have agreed to award their presidential votes to the winner of the national popular vote.

The divisive bill now heads to Gov. Steve Sisolak, who did not immediately return requests for comment on the measure.

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If adopted by enough states, the national popular vote compact would effectively neuter the electoral college, a constitutional creation that awards states one presidential vote for each of its congressional delegates.

The roughly 200-year-old system has the effect of giving smaller states greater power to pick the president, who might otherwise be elected solely via votes tallied in densely populated coastal states such as California and New York.

But the rise of President Donald Trump, who won the White House without winning over a majority of American voters, prompted renewed calls to ditch the electoral college model.

States can’t completely scrap that system without embarking on a long-shot bid to amend the Constitution, though they can pass a law dictating how their electoral delegates vote.

Enter National Popular Vote Inc., a California-based political nonprofit that has spent years convincing states to pledge their delegates to the top national vote-getter — even if that’s not the same candidate state residents preferred.

To succeed, proponents of the popular vote pact need to secure a majority of the nation’s 538 electoral delegates. Nevada’s six electoral votes would put them just 75 votes shy of that 270-vote goal.

Critics have long seen the effort as a partisan-motivated end run around the Constitution. Many worry it would diminish Nevada’s prized early role in picking presidential contenders. Some have also raised legal questions about whether Congress would need to approve the compact. Others wonder how states plan to keep rogue electors in line.

Supporters say they’re not opposed to getting congressional consent. For them, joining the popular vote compact is the best way to encourage candidates to pursue a true “50-state campaign” — and the only way to ensure every Nevadans’ vote counts.

A pair of contentious legislative committee hearings did very little to resolve these long-running disputes, even if they did succeed in sparking a handful of entertaining exchanges between state lawmakers.

Tuesday’s vote on AB 186 broke along party lines, with 12 Democrats in favor and all 8 Republicans opposed. An April vote in the Assembly was not as straightforward, with Democratic Assemblywomen Teresa Benitez-Thompson, Dina Neal, Maggie Carlton and Daniele Monroe-Moreno joining 13 GOP lawmakers opposed to the proposal.

James DeHaven is the politics reporter for the Reno Gazette Journal. He covers campaigns, the Nevada Legislature and everything in between. Support his work by subscribing to RGJ.com right here.