The Connecticut Senate approved a bill 21-14 to give the state's electoral votes to the presidential candidate who wins the popular vote, The Hill reported on Sunday.

If Democratic Gov. Dannel Malloy signs the legislation, as expected, Connecticut would become the eleventh state, plus the District of Columbia, to adopt the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact, and the first since the 2016 election. The measure already passed the state's House of Representatives 73-71.

Under the compact, states require electoral college voters to cast ballots for the national popular vote winner, according to The Guardian. The compact, which currently includes states with a total of 172 electoral votes, would in theory take effect once it includes states representing a total of at least 270 electoral votes, which is the number needed to win the presidency.

The push to create the compact gained momentum nationwide after former President George W. Bush won the 2000 election while losing the popular vote, and has been revived after the 2016 election when President Donald Trump won the Electoral College, but lost to Hillary Clinton in the popular vote by almost three million ballots, according to The Hill.

"Every person in the United States has the right to an equal voice in how our country is governed, and enacting a national popular vote ensures that right is upheld," Democratic state senator Mae Flexer told The Guardian.

But Republicans are generally opposed to the measure, since the GOP has lost six of the last seven popular votes, and the current Electoral College system bestows disproportionate power to rural areas that are strongly Republican, according to New York Magazine.

The magazine points out that getting rid of the Electoral College by either passing a nationwide constitutional amendment or convening a Constitutional convention is practically impossible, so reformists came up with the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact as a way to bypass those paths.