The Maine Senate could not either pass or not pass a bill Monday that would allow the state to participate in the National Popular Vote interstate compact.

The compact would bind Maine’s four electorates to the national popular vote in presidential elections. The bill would only take effect if states with enough delegates – 270 -- to form a majority vote for president agree to it.

Maryland, New Jersey, Illinois and Hawaii have already passed the act, and it is pending in several other states.

Maine’s system for allocating the four electorates is already unique. Instead of the winner-take-all systems used in every state except Nebraska, only two of the four delegates are given to the state’s overall winner. The other two are proportioned by congressional district.

The 50-state effort is a way to circumvent the Electoral College system – something many have tried and failed to do away with on the national level.

Monday’s 17 to 17 vote fell mainly along party lines – Democrats for and Republicans against. Sen. David Hastings III, R-Fryeburg, was absent. It has been tabled for further discussion.

With different arguments, both sides drove home the same point – under the opposing side’s system, Maine will be forgotten by presidential candidates.

Sen. Bill Diamond, D-Windham, was the lone Democrat against the bill. Diamond, a former Secretary of State, said he oversaw the Electoral College process in two elections. While he described the process as “chilling”, he just doesn’t see a compelling reason to change it, he said.

Sen. Debra Plowman, R-Hampden, was the first and most vocal dissenter. Why not just call this the “small state irrelevancy act”, she said. Presidential candidates won’t pay attention to Maine because they don’t have the population base.

She brought the following scenario up for her colleagues, if NPV was in place in November: “Maine could have its votes come out in favor of a democratic nominee, but pledged to John McCain,” she said.

Sen. Ethan Strimling, D-Portland and a congressional candidate, countered: “Maine has been irrelevant in the last two elections,” he said. “They don’t come here because there isn’t enough weight because there aren’t enough delegates.”

It’s a simple concept: One person, one vote. The current system: It’s absurd, Strimling said.

“The populous gets it,” Strimling said. “Every vote should count equally.”

But Maine hasn’t been ignored, noted Sen. Karl Turner, R-Cumberland. President Bush came, along with high-level surrogates for other candidates. The Constitutional Convention is the means for getting rid of the Electoral College – a debate that has been had and couldn’t stand up to the scrutiny, Turner said.

Sen. John Martin, D-Eagle Lake, was the bill’s sponsor. He said the system is outdated – originally designed to prevent the masses from voting. But states have the power to distribute their Electoral College votes.

Now, under the system, the 12 smallest states are ignored, while campaigns spend millions in the big states, he said.