The proposed compact has a "blackout" period (of approximately six months) on withdrawals. This "blackout" period starts on July 20 of a presidential election year and continues until a President or Vice President are qualified to serve the next term (normally on January 20 of the following year).

The purpose for the delay in the effective date of a withdrawal is to ensure that a withdrawal will not be undertaken—perhaps for partisan political purposes—in the midst of a presidential campaign or, even more egregiously, in the period between the popular voting in early November and the meeting of the Electoral College in mid-December.

An interstate compact has the specific advantage of making the obligations of the participating states into a legally enforceable contractual obligation. Of course, legal enforceability is most relevant in the event that the winner of the nationwide popular vote did not carry states having a majority of the electoral votes (as occurred, say, in 1824, 1876, 1892, and 2000). A state whose legislature and governor are controlled by a political party whose presidential candidate who did not win the nationwide popular vote could, in the absence of an enforceable restriction on withdrawal, abandon its obligations at the precise moment when they would matter. However, once a state enters into an interstate compact, a state is prevented from unilaterally nullifying the compact because the impairments clause of the U.S. Constitution. The impairment clause provides that "No State shall … pass any … Law impairing the Obligation of Contracts." Instead, a party to a contract (i.e., an interstate compact) must withdraw from the agreement in accordance with the agreement's provisions for withdrawal. Most interstate compacts contain provisions that delay the effective date of a state's withdrawal by a certain amount of time that is appropriate given the nature of the compact. The proposed compact limits withdrawal during the sensitive six-month time window of the presidential election period.

The six-month "blackout" period covers the following six important events relating to presidential elections: (1) the national nominating conventions, (2) the fall general election campaign period, (3) election day on the Tuesday after the first Monday in November, (4) the meeting of the Electoral College on the first Monday after the second Wednesday in December, (5) the counting of the electoral votes by Congress on January 6, and (6) the scheduled inauguration of the President and Vice President for the new term on January 20.

For more details, see sections 6.2.4, 6.3.4, and 8.6 of the book Every Vote Equal: A State-Based Plan for Electing the President by National Popular Vote.