Virginia Republicans move forward on plan to give GOP more electoral votes

[Cali_Democrat]

Source: The Hill

Republicans in the Virginia state Senate are moving forward with a plan that would give the GOP presidential nominee a big boost at winning most of the state's electoral votes even if the Democratic candidate won the statewide vote.

The bill, which was passed out of a state Senate subcommittee on a tied 3-3 vote, with one Republican voting against it, would allocate the state's electoral votes based on who wins each congressional district. It is likely to pass out of the full committee, which would send it to a full Senate vote.

Because Virginia Republicans had the upper hand in redistricting the state's congressional map, they hold eight of the state's 11 congressional districts. If this law had been in place for the last election, Mitt Romney would have won nine or 10 of the state's 13 electoral votes despite losing the statewide vote to President Obama by 4 percentage points.

There are a number of states Obama won that are controlled by Republican governors and legislatures that drew congressional maps very favorable to the GOP, and if all passed similar laws Romney would have likely won the presidency despite losing the popular vote by a considerable margin. Republicans in other states including Wisconsin and Pennsylvania have discussed such plans, which have been endorsed by Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus, but it's unclear whether any are likely to pass.

Read more: http://thehill.com/blogs/ballot-box/presidential-races/279011-virginia-republicans-move-forward-on-plan-to-give-gop-more-electoral-votes

---

Rather than reassess its policies, the GOP will simply rig the Electoral College in its favor.

[PDJane]

1. The GOP has been cheating in various ways since Eisenhower left office.

They are planning on not having to campaign or worry about pesky things like public opinion. Fascism by stealth.

[leftyohiolib]

20. agreed but in this case if they are allowed is it really cheating?

maybe the dems, instead of trying to be overly-fair to the cry-baby party, should have been doing this as well

[PDJane]

36. No. Because the much-vaunted US democracy would be destroyed whether they do it or we do.

This is something that should NOT be done, and the justice department should be paying attention to this. I believe that Reid delivered the country to the Republicans today.

[judesedit]

2. The electoral college needs to be gone. Then it won't matter.

[SunSeeker]

3. +100000000000000000000000000000000000!

[Sekhmets Daughter]

5. I finally agree with that sentiment...

but as it would take a constitutional amendment to do so...we are sadly stuck with it.

[Angry Dragon]

9. then I say it is time for the people to take their country back

[Sekhmets Daughter]

12. It's long past time...

what's your plan?

[Angry Dragon]

16. A 15 million person march on DC

[Sekhmets Daughter]

22. For a constitutionl amendment?

What good would that do? 30 states have republican governors and 24 are controlled by republican legislatures...who would no doubt refuse to ratify the amendment.

You want to take back your government? You'll have to focus on state elections...Dems never seem to quite get that.

[Angry Dragon]

24. A constitutional amendment has to start in DC

[Sekhmets Daughter]

25. But it needs to be ratified....

[Angry Dragon]

28. you are too negative

you have to start it to get it to the finish line

[Sekhmets Daughter]

31. I am too pragmatic... :-)

I may have hit upon a real solution, however. Gerrymandering is a political institution, and not protected by the constitution. If Dems rose up in protest of gerrymandering and demanded all districts be drawn fairly, if all the states sued as the Dems in NC have, we might actually arrive at a system that is more just. With no 'safe' districts politicians would have to serve their constituents, and a state could allot its electors in any manner it chose...because there would be no unfair advantage by one party or the other.

[Angry Dragon]

33. There will as big a fight for that as the elimination of the Electoral College

[Sekhmets Daughter]

34. One is constitutionally protected and the other is not...

that's a major difference. So no, the fight wouldn't be as big...perhaps as nasty, but not as big.

[Angleae]

45. No it doesn't.

Congress can be bypassed if 3/4 of the states truly want it.

[Angry Dragon]

47. okay

[24601]

49. There is an alternative to starting in DC. It takes 2/3 of the states to convene a Constitutional

Convention. Any amendments subsequently proposed by 2/3 of the states is ratified if 3/4 of the states agree. The Congress and President can be completely bypassed.

Edit for spelling.

[Angry Dragon]

6. +917

[rhett o rick]

17. Specifically how do you propose to do that? nm

[ck4829]

4. Is this legal?

I mean one state doing this, can't do anything, but it's clear they're coordinating this from the federal level.

Let's send this to an international election observer, "you see these votes count like this here, but these votes are counted like this over here."

If another country did this, we would be cutting off aid to them in the blink of an eye.

[Cosmocat]

13. The only thing that can be done

is for people to light the hell up about it.

Deluge the clowns pushing it to maybe push enough of the republican's into backing out of it before they bring it up for a vote.

And, if they pass it, go Wisconsin on them and gin up enough public furor to vote the ass hats out of office.

We dodged this in PA a year ago, they put their finger to the wind on it and decided the path of least blowback was the voter ID law.

But, it burns their asses to end that we go Dem in the Presidential.

We have almost a million more registered democrats than registered republicans, but they LONG ago districted both at the state and congressional level to give them a mortal lock on the state senate and the house in all but big democratic years. Obama won PA by a half dozen percentage points, but they won 13 of 18 congressional seats having 100,000 less total votes in those races.

THAT is what we are looking at here - the President winning the popular vote by a clear margin, but only getting 5 of 18 electoral votes.

I wrote both my state senator and representative about it at the time, both are Rs. My representative pretty clearly said he would not support it, my senator, who is all politician and in the leadership, took until they had decided to go Voter ID instead to say he was against it.

There is no love between the senators and representatives and our ass hat governor, but they come together on the important stuff (to them).

I suspect they are very likely to go for it this go around.

[Sekhmets Daughter]

30. FL will, no doubt, join this group of thieves...

I think there is only one real solution...and I think it would benefit democracy all the way around. The way a state allots its electors is entirely up to that state's legislature, according to the constitution. However, Gerrymandering is NOT. The Democrats, all across the nation must rise up and call for an end to gerrymandering. Yes, it would cost them some safe seats, but there should be no such thing as a "safe seat" for either party. If districts were drawn reasonably, then their electors could be allotted fairly...with no party having n illegitimate advantage.

[Cosmocat]

43. Hard to see it happening

while the Rs have fine tuned it completely to the benefit, and to the max in Pa, and while democrats will publicly talk big to an extent, they won't really push the issue, because as you noted, they REALLY benefit with mortal lock districts overloaded with democrats.

They are silent partners in it.

It is going to have to be the PEOPLE making a bit stink about it to force all of their hands on this issue.

[Sekhmets Daughter]

44. That's the push the people need to make...

To end gerrymandering...Dem politicians will have little choice when they see themselves locked out of the WH and House of Representatives for decades.

[Cosmocat]

48. problem there is

ALL politicians, their first concern is keeping THEIR job.

So, the incentive for them to actually battle it vs just passively allowing it isn't there.

Further, there is SOME party unity/concern for republicans, hence, their never ending power grabbing BS.

Democrats are cats, MUCH harder herding them.

This one is on us.

[Sekhmets Daughter]

51. Okay...

[Angleae]

46. It's perfectly legal.

Under the constitution, the people don't get to vote for president. It's just a popularity contest. The state can assign its delegates any way the legislature wants.

[NYC Liberal]

53. States could have their electoral votes be awarded unilaterally by the governor if they want.

Each State shall appoint, in such Manner as the Legislature thereof may direct, a Number of Electors, equal to the whole Number of Senators and Representatives to which the State may be entitled in the Congress

Unfortunately it is entirely legal and constitutional.

[NorthCarolina]

7. And Democrats move forward with Filibuster Reform!

Oh wait.....nevermind

[Botany]

8. Depending on how the make up of the SCOTUS goes this should be smacked on .....

.... Constitutional grounds because you can't have different methods of apportionment
of electoral votes in different states.

[Angry Dragon]

10. I believe there are places that are

[Botany]

11. no every state is a winner take all state as per the E.C..

n/t

[Sekhmets Daughter]

15. Nope...

Nebraska and Maine can split their votes...

[Angry Dragon]

21. +3,108

[Sekhmets Daughter]

14. They already do...

and the constitution specifically leaves this up to the states. Republicans have a perverse genius for undermining our democratic republic.

[Botany]

19. thanx for posting

Cheating and scams are the republicans SOP ..... no doubt w/in minutes after the
2012 returns were in the republicans could see they had a #s problems as per demographics
and they started out to get and keep as much power as possible.

[Sekhmets Daughter]

23. They have been doing that for 40 years...

We Dems have been way too blind, or naive, to see what was happening right under our noses.

[Botany]

29. Ever since Dick Nixon did a secret deal w/ the North Vietnamese in '68 ....

.... they have been cheating shits.

The sad thing is at one time this country had some good republicans who
cared about America but now a large % of them are just crooks and cheats ...
in Ohio Kasich has figured a way to sell the profits from all state liquor
sales to himself and some Wall St. buddies for the next 15 years by borrowing
money from Wall St. against the back end of the deal.

[Sekhmets Daughter]

32. I read "America's Stolen Narrative"

just last week. At the risk on being stoned here on DU, I will state that Dems have been almost as bad. Chicago sold its parking meter revenue to an outfit in Dubai...Dems were in control. Ed Rendell tried to sell part of the PA turnpike....

[Botany]

39. I think that is why Filibuster reform was killed?

Max Baucus and many like him like to keep the gravy train rolling.

Even if Harry didn't have the votes he should have at least called for
a vote we can see who is with us and who is against us.

Now I am glad that that Diane Feinstein is a D but I think she is on the
take too.

[Sekhmets Daughter]

41. They all are...

As long as elections must be paid for, and American citizens are unwilling to do so, they have little about which to complain in that regard. I was shocked to learn that the Obama "list" that everyone thinks is so marvelous, contains only 16 million names. It's hard to find accurate numbers, but I think there are between 52 million and 63 million registered Dems in the nation. If you can't or won't fork over money to elect your representatives and your president, how committed are you? I know of poor people who literally kept money in a jar, or a sock, until they accumulated enough to make a $10. contribution. They have skin in the game and I applaud them.

[markpkessinger]

52. Unfortunately, yes you can...

... The Constitution leaves it to the States to determine how they will apportion electoral votes. There are already a couple of small states (i.e., 4-6 electoral votes each) that award electoral delegates by Congressional district.

[NYC Liberal]

54. Of course you can.

Until the mid-19th century there were some states that awarded their electoral votes based on the results of a popular vote (like all do now) and some that had the state legislatures vote on it.

Doesn't mean it shouldn't be opposed, of course.

[santamargarita]

26. Here we go again, going to sit back and let these

Rat bastards steal yet another election screwing around with the system - only this time it's over!!! We must do something to stop this now.
They have already said they will steal the country back and "they don't care about Americans or what they think."

[Freddie Stubbs]

27. Virginia is still winnable by a GOP candidate

Imagine a GOPer carrying the state and not getting all of the electoral votes.

[MSMITH33156]

35. I don't think it will pass

The bill, which was passed out of a state Senate subcommittee on a tied 3-3 vote, with one Republican voting against it, would allocate the state's electoral votes based on who wins each congressional district. It is likely to pass out of the full committee, which would send it to a full Senate vote.

I think there was something important buried here. A Republican in the Virginia Senate in the subcommittee voted against it. The Virginia Senate is split 20-20. Unless that Senator changes his/her mind, then this will not pass the Virginia Senate unless some Democrat votes for it.

[Dawson Leery]

37. The Lt. Governor opposes the bill.

[blue_heron]

40. Do you have a source for that?

I hope it's true!!!!!!!

[Dawson Leery]

50. Here:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/1014378747

http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2013/01/bill-bolling-virginia-redistricting.php?ref=fpnewsfeed

[Renew Deal]

38. I think this shows a lack of confidence in Republicans winning Virginia in the future

[broadcaster75201]

42. And I don't say this lightly, but any U.S. government elected that way ...

is utterly illegitimate and must be ignored and dealt with as such.

[Blue Nile]

55. Sen Vogel (R)

The Republican Senator did not vote against it.That would have killed the Bill immediately.However she states that she will continue to oppose the Bill in full committee or on the senate Floor

http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2013/01/23/1486841/virginia-republican-state-senator-opposes-gop-electoral-college-rigging-scheme/

[NYtoBush-Drop Dead]

56. This from the transvaginal probe state

OR as we like to call them Transvirginal.