Posted on 09/19/2011 11:55:25 AM PDT by Vigilanteman
HARRISBURG — The plan to change how Pennsylvania awards its electoral votes in presidential elections has ignited a debate over its fairness and the effect on the state's substantial clout in national politics.
Both the state Republican Party chairman and the national GOP political committee, which has the mission of electing Republicans to Congress, oppose the proposal by Senate Majority Leader Dominic Pileggi, R-Delaware County.
Pileggi wants to replace the system of awarding all of the state's electoral votes to the candidate who wins the statewide election. The number of Pennsylvania electoral votes will shrink from 21 to 20 in the 2012 election, reflecting the loss of one U.S. House seat because of the state's sluggish population growth.
Under Pileggi's plan, candidates would garner an electoral vote for each of the state's 18 congressional districts that they carry; the other two electoral votes would go to the winner of the statewide balloting. The only other states using that method are Maine and Nebraska.
Had Pileggi's plan been in effect in the 2008 presidential election, Democrat Barack Obama would have won 11 electoral votes instead of 21 — nine for winning that many congressional districts and two for the statewide vote — and Republican John McCain would have won 10.
The proposal was made in a year that the Republican-controlled Legislature is poised to redraw the state's congressional districts based on new census figures.
(Excerpt) Read more at pittsburghlive.com ...
The RINO leadership in the Pennsylvania GOP are corrupt bast*rds in general. Gleason is in particular with his track record of sandbagging conservatives and openly supporting the RAT incumbent (Specter, Murtha, to name just two examples) when those efforts failed.
You know it is a good idea when a bipartisan coalition of corrupt b*stards like Gleason and Rendell line up to oppose it.
don’t mess with the electoral college system
The only people opposing this are political cronies and Democrats.
Maine has been doing it since 1972; Nebraska since 1992.
if our state does this, it won’t be the final nail in Obama’s coffin, but it certainly will smear the edges with Krazy Glue.
As always I think the GOP establishment fears this being turned against them in other states.
Elimination of the EC would make the USA an “Outline Country”....
This is NOT the elimination of the Electoral College, it is the real way to insure the people get true representation via the electoral college process, one vote per congress critter's district and one for each senator.
This plan will prevent the demonRATS from EVER controlling the PA Presidential elections just because they control Philly and Pburgh.
It would be nice if some of the other big states did it, too. For example, California thinks that it has so much influence, but the corrupt machine in LA and the kooks in SF disenfranchise the rest of the state. And they have the same amount of senators as Idaho. They would be better off generally as three states, but the PA approach to the Electoral College would at least do them some good every four years, as presidential candidates would have to actually campaign in the Sunshine State.
Sadly, small states like North Dakota would still be ignored.
I agree. This would be a good improvement.
For one, this would bust up the power of urban centers in places like PA. If done for all states, the overall result would be fairer and better. You’d see interesting campaigning in various districts.
Even here in Pennsylvania, there is a huge difference between the Democrat base in the Pittsburgh region versus those in the Philadelphia and Scranton regions.
The Pittsburghers are aware that they have to keep their graft and corruption at a somewhat tolerable level. Those in Scranton and Philly have zero restraint because their brain dead voters will never pull the "R" lever under any circumstances unless the "R" is at least as corrupt. Case in point: Arlen Specter before he flipped.
1) The Constitution allows each State Legislature to adopt the system of awarding electoral votes that it wants, so contrary to want others are saying, this does not go against the founders intent.
2) Contrary to want dems are screaming, this does not disenfranchise large urban districts. Each district by law and Supreme Court precedent has equal representation. PA-1 in Philadelphia has the same number of citizens as PA-3 in western Pennsylvania.
3) Contrary to the dem's lies, this discourages gerrymandering rather than encouraging it. Both parties would have the incentive of distributing their vote across as many districts as possible instead of loading them up into "safe districts"
4) It decreases the effect of voter fraud. No longer will Philly districts (who use electronic voting machines) wait until Western and rural districts (using paper optical scan ballots) report before deciding how many votes to report. It will no longer make any difference. The rural and suburban districts will finally have a voice.
Any chance we can get Michigan, Illinois and California to follow suit?
Well CA could get it done by putting it on the ballot as a resolution, but then the 9th Circuit would screw it all up anyway. I've come to agree that this would be a good thing to implement - country-wide.
Ping to the Philly crew.
ping
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