HONOLULU – Gov. Linda Lingle vetoed a bill Monday that sought to elect U.S. presidents by a popular vote.

Lingle said she was worried about the potential that Hawaii's four electoral votes could be given to a candidate who failed to garner a majority of votes in the state.

“Given the potential ... that Hawaii's electoral votes would be awarded in a manner that may not reflect the will of the majority of the voters in Hawaii, I believe that this bill is not in the best interest of the citizens of the state of Hawaii,” Lingle wrote in her veto message.

The bill seeks to change the Electoral College system by creating a national agreement among the states.

The plan aims to make the Electoral College system irrelevant by awarding state electoral votes to the winner of the nationwide popular vote. It would only take effect when state legislatures representing a majority of electoral votes approve similar laws.

Currently, all of each state's electoral votes go to the candidate who wins that state.

The purpose of these measures would be to avoid a repeat of the 2000 presidential election, when Democrat Al Gore lost despite getting more votes than George W. Bush.

If the proposed law had been adopted by states carrying a majority of electoral votes, all their votes would have gone for Gore and he would have won, even if Bush and Gore had each led in the same states.

Both the state House and Senate would need to achieve two-thirds majorities to override the governor's veto.

So far, Maryland is the only state to have passed a popular vote proposal into law.