Pennsylvania proposes allocating electoral votes by Congressional distrct

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http://www.politicspa.com/capitolwire-pileggi-wants-to-change-pa-electoral-process/27552/

Pileggi responded: “I have no reason to comment on his opinion. … I am not sure what others are going to say. The reasons in favor of my proposal are clear. It is hard to argue against the facts that congressional districts have very different results and what we do right now does not reflect the diversity of Pennsylvania.”

In 2008, that would have meant President Barack Obama, who won the state 21-0 under the current winner-takes-all law, would have won by a mere 11-10, if Pileggi’s law was in place.





Hehe.

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That clearly is a sign that they don't believe they can win the state outright.

Yes it is. Incidentally, North Carolina Democrats talked about the same earlier this decade and it would have backfired.

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Wouldn't this be roughly analagous to Baker v. Carr? The constitution didn't mandate fair redistricting by population, but SCOTUS felt confident institution a one man, one vote standard. Having republicans lose PA but get a majority of its EVs is a clear violation of OMOV.

It would certainly be unlikely for such litigation to influence the 2012 election.

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Interesting, but not worth it for the GOP in my opinion. They can win the state outright, it certainly isn't favorable in a close election, but they can. Winner-take-all probably benefits them more, IMO. Also, this would break Dave's electoral college calculator.

Yes, it would be a much better tactic in Michigan.

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The fact that minority voters are packed into overwhelmingly Democratic districts i think would make for a successful equal protection challenge.

Such a challenge would likely require an actual incidence, not a hypothetical, and in any case if Pennsylvania's electoral votes are disqualified in a close election the GOP will win anyway in the House of Representatives.

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The fact that minority voters are packed into overwhelmingly Democratic districts i think would make for a successful equal protection challenge.

Such a challenge would likely require an actual incidence, not a hypothetical, and in any case if Pennsylvania's electoral votes are disqualified in a close election the GOP will win anyway in the House of Representatives.

Nope. If electors are disqualified and not replaced, that changes the number of votes needed. Ie, it doesn't throw the election into the House.

Hmph, I am going by this.

http://www.archives.gov/federal-register/electoral-college/faq.html

What happens if no presidential candidate gets 270 electoral votes?

If no candidate receives a majority of electoral votes, the House of Representatives elects the President from the 3 Presidential candidates who received the most electoral votes.



The text of the 12th amendment suggests a majority of electors appointed; in the event that Pennsylvania's electoral votes are not counted, they were of course still appointed.

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@GovernorCorbett backs @SenatorPileggi plan to allot prez votes by cong district: "fairness to the individual voters."http://bit.ly/oVDY62

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I wonder how this could affect redistricting. There's some conflict between Presidential and Congressional numbers: maximising the expected number of Republican Presidential districts in the Philly suburbs may not be the same as maximising the expected number of Republican Congressman in that area.

The following 5 districts were all won by Kerry and have GOP congressmen. All of course were close to being won by President Bush. Unfortunately flipping one at the expense of another requires twisty lines, but I doubt anyone would care to do that as Obama is collapsing among Pennsylvania whites.


Pennsylvania's 6th
Pennsylvania's 7th
Pennsylvania's 8th
Pennsylvania's 11th
Pennsylvania's 15th

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I have to give Republicans credit. Of all possible plans to rig the system in their favor that they've been going over this year, I never considered they would try this.

Why? You liberals brought it up in North Carolina.

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Sometimes I wonder, though, how many things do Republicans have to do to try and rig the system in their favor before anyone starts to care?

Oh, I get why you would cry about it. I don't get why a liberal would be surprised at others copying their best ideas; people do that frequently. Look at all the Ipad clones.

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PA-12, PA-1, though it happens who ever in in power.

It certainly takes extreme ignorance to complain about gerrymandering in Texas, North Carolina, and Georgia by the Republicans given what Democrats did for a century.

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So is this going to happen then or what?

No, it seems pretty much dead.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6106804/ns/politics-tom_curry/t/split-colorados-electoral-votes/

Helping lead the charge for the measure, called Amendment 36, is Democratic consultant Rick Ridder, a veteran of the Howard Dean campaign.
Julie Brown, the campaign director of Make Your Vote Count, the Denver-based group pushing the measure, said the idea began in 2001, when a Democratic state legislator from Boulder, Ron Tupa, proposed a bill to allocate Colorado’s electoral votes as Maine and Nebraska do: the popular vote winner would get two electoral votes and the winner of the rest of the state’s electoral votes would be determined by who carried each congressional district.



Hmm.

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So is this going to happen then or what?

No, it seems pretty much dead.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6106804/ns/politics-tom_curry/t/split-colorados-electoral-votes/

Helping lead the charge for the measure, called Amendment 36, is Democratic consultant Rick Ridder, a veteran of the Howard Dean campaign.
Julie Brown, the campaign director of Make Your Vote Count, the Denver-based group pushing the measure, said the idea began in 2001, when a Democratic state legislator from Boulder, Ron Tupa, proposed a bill to allocate Colorado’s electoral votes as Maine and Nebraska do: the popular vote winner would get two electoral votes and the winner of the rest of the state’s electoral votes would be determined by who carried each congressional district.



Hmm.

What will happen in PA? Thanks for bringing up irrelevant, 6 years old sh**t.

Read the first sentence; as I said, it appears dead. A lot of people seem to not like it.

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And yet you linked a 6 year link for what, sh**ts and giggles?

Historical basis. Why does it bother you so much?

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If this does happen I could easily see the Democratic base getting motivated again.  Being a a blatant political maneuver even though it would cost Democrats electoral votes in Pennsylvania even a small increase of 2% of Democratic turnout could cost the GOP Virginia, Ohio and Florida again and maybe even a dozen or so additional House seats.

Keep dreaming. Look how many political junkies were ignorant of these tactics being used in colorado. Nobody will even know about it.