because the Dems wouldn't try this as well..." ? Since the last time a candidate that won the popular vote but didn't win the electoral vote happened to be a Democrat, and yet you didn't see the "Dems" try this as well, I think your entire supposition is flawed.
Pointing to a Democrats commenting on the problems involved in the EC (versus the popular vote) doesn't quite compare to GOP efforts to replace the EC, not with the popular vote, but a ginned up system that clearly favors the GOP.
In the short term, say one election cycle, I can see this working, and working very well. But surely the backlash would be huge. This isn't Gore vs Bush where it's a close majority, but it can potentially make it so that the loser has maybe 3-5% lead on the winner in terms of the popular vote. With an already changing demographic in American voting population, surely this would be a long term disaster in terms of attracting younger, future voters.
They talked about this back in 2011 too and ran into a multitude of problems: 1. It only works in blue states, and whatever goodwill you've earned will be destroyed. The net result is likely that the governors and legislatures go back to being blue once the people realize you've made them pawns for a GOP President. 2. The national GOP was horribly embarrassed by this and basically told the states to stuff it. 3. It makes swing states irrelevant going forward. No one will compete to win those states any more, so all the attention and pandering they get now (midwest rust belt states) goes away completely. This thing isn't going anywhere - it would be the deathknell for a party that already had a voter suppression / election manipulation scheme backfire this last election.
yes, proportional voting by state is ok, but proportional voting by district is destroying democracy... good grief There would be swing districts instead of swing states. The concept is the same. Yes, the citizens of Maine and Nebraska are up in arms over their proportional allocation.
Do you think gerrymandering districts for purely political reasons is a good thing? Do you think it creates better representation and better government?
On a side note, if states were redesigned every 10 years by whoever was in charge of Congress to try to help maximize their control of Congress, I think people would have problems with proportional voting by state too.
Looks like sane republicans are pushing back. Michigan Governor Backs Off ‘Unfair’ Electoral Rigging Plan: ‘I Don’t Think This Is The Right Time’ Gov. Rick Snyder (R): I’m very skeptical of the idea and the timeframe that would be done, because I really view it as a question of you don’t want to change the playing field so it’s an unfair advantage to someone. A lot of ways, we want to make sure we’re reflecting the vote of the people, and this could challenge that. So in many respects, the right time to do it is if people are looking as, we should do it before census is taken and before redistricting takes place and it should be a bipartisan effort. Virginia Senate Committee Overwhelmingly Kills Electoral Vote Rigging Scheme The bill, as written, would have awarded 11 of Virginia’s 13 electoral votes to the winner of each of the state’s 11 heavily gerrymandered Congressional Districts. The remaining two electors would have been awarded to whoever won the majority of Congressional Districts. Under this scheme, Mitt Romney would have received 9 Virginia electors to Obama’s 4, even though Barack Obama won the state by four points.
Look at it this way. Rockwell county (pop.78,337) would count the same as Harris County (pop. 4.1 million) in Texas. Explain to me how that is fair to the people of Harris County? 1 person=1 vote? You just disenfranchised 3.9+ million people, saying there vote doesn't count. The lawsuits.......wow.
A change like this to the electoral voting system would destroy democracy even further. The electoral college is already damaging to democracy (potential of losing despite majority vote), and this would make it much worse. Get rid of the electoral college entirely, I say. Of course, Republicans will never acquiesce to that because they know they'll never get the country's majority vote again. That's why they have to resort to these sorts of tactics. If you can't win fairly, try to win by cheating!
Give me a break. Democrats held every state legislature (and most governorships) in the south until the beginning of the last decade despite the fact that the South had been voting Republican in Presidential elections for decades. Yet this never happened nor was it even suggested in the South. Quit this, both sides do it garbage. Democrats had plenty of chances to do this over the course of three decades in a variety of states where they held Congressional majorities but lost presidential elections.
The fact that we know Obama won with 51.1% and our system of counting shows 332 to 206 61.7% is reason enough to change the system. Manipulation of a broken system is a waste of time.
