A proposal to have Oregon join a multi-state agreement to anoint as U.S. president the winner of the national popular vote in future elections has died in the Oregon Legislature yet again.

Senate Rules chair Ginny Burdick, D-Portland, said Thursday she will allow the bill to die in her committee because it "doesn't make sense" to advance the version she favors, as advocates wouldn't support it.

There is heightened interest in the multi-state deal, which would cause the national popular vote to supersede the state-results-driven Electoral College process, after Hillary Clinton won the popular vote by two percentage points in 2016, while Donald Trump claimed the presidency with his decisive Electoral College victory.

The bill that has died would have added Oregon to the 10 Democrat-leaning states that have agreed to cast all their electoral votes for the candidate who wins the national popular vote. Those pledges will take effect once states accounting for at least 270 Electoral College votes, the minimum necessary to claim the presidency, join the compact. So far, states with 162 electoral votes, and the District of Columbia with 3, have joined.

A pledge for Oregon to join the compact passed the Oregon House for a fourth time this year, after clearing the chamber in 2009, 2013 and 2015, but stalled in the Senate Rules Committee. Advocates for the bill took note and called on Senate Democrats to change course before the end of the legislative session, currently expected to wrap up late Friday.

In past years, bills on this issue were blocked by Senate President Peter Courtney, D-Salem, who opposes abandoning the traditional Electoral College process. But this year, Courtney said he would support the change if Oregon voters—not their representatives in Salem—made the call.

Amending the bill to refer the question to voters would have triggered a requirement to send it back to the House to see if its members concurred with the change. Burdick, the Senate Rule chair, told The Oregonian/OregonLive Thursday that while she would support a bill that included a referral, it "doesn't make sense" to amend the House bill at this point.

"The national popular vote advocates have made it clear, emphatically, that they do not want to refer the matter to the voters," she said. "I am a strong supporter of the national popular vote, but I also believe the best method for fixing our democracy is at the ballot box."

"It would make no sense to put any issue on the ballot without advocates who are willing to do the voter outreach necessary for a measure to be successful," she said.

Kate Titus, executive director of Common Cause Oregon, the state chapter of a national group that advocates for voting rights, called the focus on including a referral to voters a "disingenuous attempt to sideline the bill."

"It's really sad that the Oregon legislature is planning to drop the ball again on major voting rights legislation," she said. "There's no exceptional reason why this bill needs a more cumbersome path."

Among her concerns about sending the proposal to the ballot are a lack of funds and manpower on the part of groups like Common Cause to advocate for the issue. "There's no money to run a ballot campaign," she said. "And what happens at the ballot is there's a ton of money in the process that can sway things."

Still, she and other advocates including Larry Taylor, chair of the Progressive Caucus of Oregon, have emphasized the legislation's public support.

A statement from the Progressive Caucus said 25 Oregon county Democratic Central Committees have passed resolutions supporting national popular vote legislation. The state central committee of the Democratic Party of Oregon passed a similar resolution in March.

"We want a vote," Taylor said, "so we have clarity on which senators are choosing to ignore their duty as representatives of the people."

National popular vote legislation has been around for the past decade, with Maryland passing the first such bill in 2007. The issue has gotten renewed attention since the 2016 presidential election, with lawmakers in states including Maine, Florida and Georgia introducing national popular vote bills this past January.

Titus said Common Cause plans to continue advocating for national popular vote legislation in future legislative cycles. She said she hopes Burdick will "change course."

--Janaki Chadha

503-221-8165; @janakichadha