GOP's Electoral Vote Scheme Already On Life Support

[TruthOut10]

Four states down, and just two remain.

Key Republican officials in Virginia, Ohio, Florida, and Michigan are coming out against a RNC-backed scheme to rig the electoral vote in Democratic-leaning states in order to boost Republican presidential candidates. That leaves just Pennsylvania and Wisconsin as the remaining blue states with Republican statehouses actively considering the idea.

Virginia was the first state to move on the plan in 2013, advancing a bill out of a state Senate subcommittee that would apportion its electoral votes by Congressional district rather than the winner-take-all method used in 48 of the 50 states. Had it been in place the year before, Mitt Romney would have won 9 of the state’s electoral votes to President Obama’s 4 despite losing the state’s popular vote. But after Gov. Bob McDonnell (R) and key Republican lawmakers came out against it, the bill was defeated in committee Tuesday on an 11-4 vote.

Not only does the Virginia bill appear to be dead, the media frenzy surrounding it has forced top Republicans in other states to take a decisive position on similar proposals in their legislatures as well.

Republicans In Key States Drop Plans To Alter How Electoral College Votes Are Awarded | TPMDC

 

[Dot Com]

Don't know McDonnell (R) motivation but glad he was the first one to come out against their idea

 

[C_Clayton_Jones]

Republicans: crazy but not stupid.

Now, if they could only fix the crazy they’d be good to go.

 

[martybegan]

Four states down, and just two remain.

Key Republican officials in Virginia, Ohio, Florida, and Michigan are coming out against a RNC-backed scheme to rig the electoral vote in Democratic-leaning states in order to boost Republican presidential candidates. That leaves just Pennsylvania and Wisconsin as the remaining blue states with Republican statehouses actively considering the idea.

Virginia was the first state to move on the plan in 2013, advancing a bill out of a state Senate subcommittee that would apportion its electoral votes by Congressional district rather than the winner-take-all method used in 48 of the 50 states. Had it been in place the year before, Mitt Romney would have won 9 of the state’s electoral votes to President Obama’s 4 despite losing the state’s popular vote. But after Gov. Bob McDonnell (R) and key Republican lawmakers came out against it, the bill was defeated in committee Tuesday on an 11-4 vote.

Not only does the Virginia bill appear to be dead, the media frenzy surrounding it has forced top Republicans in other states to take a decisive position on similar proposals in their legislatures as well.

Republicans In Key States Drop Plans To Alter How Electoral College Votes Are Awarded | TPMDC

Its still not "rigging" anything. The states are allowed to determine how thier electors are selected, only the number of electors and how they vote is mandated by the consitution.

 

[mamooth]

Debatable. The Nebraska and Maine systems have never faced a legal challenge, and might get shot down if they did face one. States can designate their electors, but they must obey all parts of the Constitution and derived federal law when doing so.

For example, if the state legislature simply declared "all electors always go to the Repubilcan candidate", that would be shot down by the courts as a violation of the equal protection clause as it applied to voting rights. For precedence, see Bush v. Gore, which the Supreme Court based on different counting standards being an equal protection violation. Given how the Republicans have openly stated they want to use the new system to devalue urban votes, it's likely the Court would shoot it down as an equal protection violation.