Harrisburg, PA — Two out of three Pennsylvanians believe the President should be the candidate who "gets the most votes in all 50 states", according to a recent poll conducted by noted Political Science Professor Dr. Terry Madonna.

The strong showing came in Madonna's March Omnibus Poll involving a telephone survey of more than 800 Pennsylvania residents and voters. Among those interviewed, seven in ten agreed "it would be unjust to have a President who did not receive the most popular votes."

The survey findings were released by the National Popular Vote Project even as state House and Senate sponsors are garnering additional support for enabling legislation on the matter.

Madonna said polling showed bipartisan public support for the project. "A clear majority of Republicans and Democrats favor popular voting in place of the Electoral College's current method for choosing the President," Madonna said. "The fundamental reasons the Founding Fathers created the Electoral College system no longer exist, and the voters of Pennsylvania understand that."

The prime sponsor of the legislation in the House, Republican state Rep. Tom Creighton of Lancaster County, is quick to point out that his legislation(HB1270) does not seek to supplant the Electoral College, but rather seeks to direct the electors as provided in the U.S. Constitution.

The Constitution, Creighton notes, spells out in Article II, Section 1, that only the state legislatures may set rules on electors and that, in fact, the term "Electoral College" does not appear in the Constitution.

"Right now, most states allow electors to abide by a 'winner take all' approach which casts all of a state's electoral college votes for the candidate who wins that state," no matter if the candidate wins by a single vote or in a landslide. That "winner take all" practice has resulted in four elections where the candidate who received the most popular votes was not seated as President. A half dozen other elections resulted in "near misses."

Only about one in four persons surveyed believe that electing a President by the national popular vote will favor one party over another. And of those who believe that, there is a clear split over which party would be favored.

Support was strong for the popular vote across the state although the most vigorous support was noted in Northwestern Pennsylvania, where 72 percent supported the concept. Philadelphia and suburban counties came next with 69 percent supporting a National Popular Vote. 63 percent supported the concept in both Southwestern(including Pittsburgh) and Northeastern Pennsylvania. A clear majority (58 percent) supported the idea in Central Pennsylvania.

The Madonna survey included the questions on the presidential election at the request of the National Popular Vote Project, a non-partisan, non-profit organization promoting the issue nationwide. Interviews were conducted with 807 residents, of whom 659 were registered voters, using a random digit telephone number selection system that allowed for the inclusion of cell phone users, in addition to regular landline respondents. The sample error was plus or minus 3.4 percentage points.

Results in the survey were similar to those reported in a 2008 automated survey of more than 1,000 Pennsylvania voters conducted by Public Policy Polling. In that poll about 70 percent favored the election of the President by the national popular vote.