HELENA -- The Montana Senate rejected a proposal to bypass the Electoral College and award the presidency of the United States to the winner of the popular vote Thursday -- the same day a similar proposal was rejected in North Dakota.

The Senate voted 30-20 against a bill by Sen. Laible, R-Darby, that would award all three of Montana's electoral votes to whichever presidential candidate won the most popular votes nationwide.

The Electoral College has 538 members, with a candidate needing a majority of 270 votes to be elected.

The National Popular Vote initiative asks state legislatures to adopt a contract ordering their presidential electors to vote for the winner of the national popular vote for president, regardless of the candidate's results in that state.

The new measure is being promoted as a way to prevent a repeat of the 2000 election in which Democrat Al Gore won the popular vote but lost the Electoral College vote to Republican George W. Bush.

But Laible told the Senate that the measure was nonpartisan and was needed to let Montana play a more prominent role on the national political state.

"We've become irrelevant," Laible said. "Candidates don't even come here."

Several senators said the bill was ill-conceived and unconstitutional. Others said it would have the opposite effect of what Liable intended and give more focus during presidential campaigns to heavily populated urban areas.

"Do you think farm issues, ranch issues, rural issues of any kind will be discussed? No because there's no votes there," said Sen. Roy Brown, R-Billings.

But Liable and other senators insisted that the bill was more in line with the founding fathers had intended. They said technological advances had made the Electoral College obsolete and giving Montana's Electoral College Votes to the winner of the popular vote was more democratic.

"All of us here got the most votes," said Sen. Jesse Laslovich, D-Anaconda. "Shouldn't it be the same for the president of the United States?"

Laible's bill is Senate bill 290.