Serious Threat
Update: It looks like this election stealing scheme is dead. GOP leaders in four of the the six target states have cooled to the idea. Good news.
Right now, Maine and Nebraska are the only states that allocate electoral college votes by congressional district. The win-at-any-cost GOP is now proposing that several states that went to Obama in 2012, but are under Republican government, change their electoral college votes to congressional districts, rather than winner-take-all.
At first blush that sounds fair. But let’s consider the result. Because the congressional districts in these states are gerrymandered, packing as many democrats into as few districts as possible and spreading the Republican vote out to maintain slim majorities in the remaining districts, Republicans disproportionately carry the congressional elections. As many have pointed out, the GOP lost the vote for the house by over a million votes, yet won more seats, because of gerrymandering.
Extending that result to the presidential election would have dramatically reduced Obama’s electoral college vote, to a much too close 271-267, in spite of the much larger popular vote advantage.
The states where this proposal is being discussed include our own Michigan, with a Republican governor and legislature. This is the gang that brought us Right to Work for Less in spite of its great unpopularity. They don’t care what people want. It’s win at any cost.