AUGUSTA — The Maine Senate voted Monday to reject an effort to withdraw from a multistate compact that could eventually require Maine to award its four Electoral College votes for president to the winner of the national popular vote.

The 18-16 vote against withdrawing from the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact means the bill is unlikely to secure final passage, even after the House of Representatives voted 76-71 to repeal the law enacted last year to have Maine join the agreement.

The measure was not debated in the Senate Monday, though it did draw arguments from lawmakers when it was before the House last month.

Rep. Barbara Bagshaw, R-Windham, the sponsor of LD 252, and other opponents said Maine’s current system, which awards two electoral votes to the statewide winner and one to the winner in each of the state’s two congressional districts, should be preserved and emulated across the country. They argued that rural voters, especially in the 2nd District, would be silenced and that Maine would be giving its influence to larger states.

“Under the current system, Mainers’ votes matter, our rural communities matter, our people’s priorities matter,” Bagshaw said. “But under the national popular vote, Maine’s influence would be cast aside for larger populations thousands of miles away.”

Proponents of the compact have said the presidency is a unique national office that should go to whoever wins the most votes nationally, even if they end up with fewer Electoral College votes. They argue that the current system forces candidates to concentrate on winning votes in a handful of swing states, while ignoring others.

When a state joins the compact, it pledges that all of its electoral votes will be given to whichever presidential candidate wins the popular vote nationwide, rather than the candidate who won the vote in just that state. The compact will only be activated after enough states join to control 270 Electoral College votes, the minimum number needed to win the presidency.

Seventeen states and Washington, D.C., have enacted national popular vote laws and have committed 209 electoral votes so far, according to the nonprofit National Popular Vote, which advocates for states to join the compact.