Maine’s state legislature approved a bill that would tie its four electoral votes for president to the country’s popular vote.

The Maine House, by a 73-72 vote on Wednesday, passed the legislation, which then was approved by the state Senate.

Gov. Janet Mills, a Democrat, has not indicated if she will sign the legislation.

The movement to tie each state’s Electoral College votes to the national popular vote (NPV) largely has been supported by Democrats.

So far, 16 states and Washington, D.C., have agreed to join the compact, representing 205 electoral votes, Spectrum News reported.

The compact only would be activated if the participants have a total of 270 Electoral College votes, which would decide the presidential election.

“By passing the National Popular Vote Compact, Democrats have again signaled that they do not care about everyday Mainers, their rights, their opinions, or their protections under the U.S. Constitution. They have surrendered Maine’s ability to help choose a President to large urban states like California and New York,” Maine House Republicans said in a statement.

“The votes of large states with major cities like California and New York will now dominate our Presidential elections at the expense of smaller, rural states.”

Some Republicans around the country support the movement, including former Michigan Republican Party Chair Saul Anuzis.

“The Maine legislature’s approval of the NPV bill gets our country one step closer to a goal that already enjoys broad bipartisan support and simply makes sense: electing the president by popular vote,” Anuzis told the Washington Examiner.

“The National Popular Vote plan advances the principle of one-person, one-vote when electing the president. That’s good for every voter, the integrity of our elections, and the health of our democracy. Period.”

The Maine legislatures’ votes on the NPV bill came a day after Nebraska Republican Gov. Jim Pillen publicly endorsed reinstating a “winner-take-all” system for awarding the state’s electoral votes in a change that, if implemented, could have a significant affect on the 2024 election.

Nebraska, with five electoral votes, joins Maine as the only states that assign the votes by district.

In the 2020 election, former President Donald Trump earned one electoral vote from Maine while President Joe Biden got three.

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