Colorado election law isn't in effect, wouldn't give 'all our votes' to Trump | Fact check

The claim: Colorado law awards ‘all our votes’ in 2024 to Trump

A Nov. 6 Threads post (direct link, archive link) claims Trump is credited with winning every vote in one state.

“Law passed by Colorado Democrats gives all our votes to Trump for winning popular vote,” reads text in the image, which is a screenshot of a blog post's headline.

The text of the Threads post goes on to state in part, "It appears by law everyone in Colorado voted for Superstar President Donald Trump.”

The image also was reposted hundreds of times in two days on X, formerly Twitter.

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Our rating: False

The law was not active during the 2024 election, and the post mischaracterizes what will happen if it does take effect. It will commit Colorado and other participating states to award their electoral votes to the winner of the national popular vote. It does not give every individual vote cast in the state to that candidate.

Popular vote plan not yet in effect in Colorado

The National Popular Vote Interstate Compact is an agreement that could effectively phase out the Electoral College system of electing a president, with participating states pledging to award their electoral votes to the candidate with the most votes nationally. Colorado joined that movement in 2019, when Gov. Jared Polis signed a measure passed by the Democrat-controlled legislature, and after a challenge, voters in 2020 approved a statewide referendum to keep it.

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But that agreement has not yet taken effect, and it is unclear if it ever will. Under its terms, it will not be legally binding until it is adopted by more states.

A total of 17 states and the District of Columbia have passed laws committing to the compact, and they have a combined 209 electoral votes. But those states have agreed the plan won’t take effect until the combined electoral vote total of its participants reaches at least 270 – the number needed to win the presidency.

“That means when states with 61 more electoral votes pass the bill, we will elect the president by national popular vote,” said Patrick Rosenstiel, a consultant for National Popular Vote, a nonprofit, bipartisan group advocating for the measure.

Five presidents have lost the popular vote but won the election, the most recent being Trump in 2016 and George W. Bush in 2000. The other elections were in the 19th century.

Like the vast majority of states, Colorado awards its electoral votes to the winner of the statewide popular vote. In the 2024 race, that means its 10 electoral votes will go to Democratic nominee Kamala Harris. As of Nov. 8, she unofficially received 55% of the statewide popular vote. Media outlets calling individual races on Election Night declared her the state's winner. The fact that Trump was positioned to win the national popular vote with a nearly 5 million vote lead as of Nov. 7 has no effect on that.

A line in the screenshotted article reads in part that the law “pledges every vote cast in the state to Trump, because he won the national popular vote.” That – along with the text of the Threads post and the screenshotted headline – is wrong. Even under the terms of the compact, the candidate who wins the national popular vote would receive the participating states’ electoral votes – not the votes cast by every individual voter.

USA TODAY previously debunked false claims that the misspelling of Trump's name on an Ohio ballot could invalidate the vote and that a similar misspelling of his name on a Virginia ballot is evidence of fraud.

USA TODAY reached out to the group that publishes the blog, but its response did not include evidence to support the claim. USA TODAY also reached out to the Threads user who shared the image but did not immediately receive a response. The X user who shared it could not be reached.

Our fact-check sources:

• Patrick Rosenstiel, Nov. 7, Email exchange with USA TODAY

• National Popular Vote, accessed Nov. 7, Home

• National Popular Vote, accessed Nov. 7, Agreement Among the States to Elect the President by National Popular Vote

• NBC News, Nov. 9, 2020, There's a plan afoot to replace the Electoral College, and your state may already be part of it

• NBC News, Nov. 8, Colorado President Results: Harris Wins

• Colorado Secretary of State, accessed Nov. 8, Colorado Election Results

• The Associated Press, Nov. 5, AP Race Call: Kamala Harris wins Colorado

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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Post misleads about Colorado, national popular vote pact | Fact check