What if a participating state tries to leave the Compact during or after an election?
Federal law already prohibits states from changing their laws governing that year’s allocation of electors after Election Day. As a formal interstate compact, NPV adds the additional protection of the Impairments Clause of the U.S. Constitution (Article I, Section 10, Clause 1), which prohibits states from dishonoring interstate compacts. The NPV compact includes a “blackout” period between July 20 of a presidential election year and the inauguration on January 20 of the following year. The terms of the compact to do not allow individual states to withdraw from a compact during this time. This six-month blackout period covers the when parties typically hold national nominating conventions, the general election, the state certification process, the actual meeting of the Electoral College in December, the counting of the electoral votes by Congress on January 6, and the inauguration of the President and Vice President for the new term on January 20. Once NPV is activated, it is unlikely
