Dear Robert,
Last
week, we warned you about the Republican Plan (see below) to rig the
Electoral College to win the presidential election in 2016.
And now they've already started to move this plan forward in Virginia! This
past Tuesday, Virginia SB 723 passed out of the Senate Elections and
Campaigns Subcommittee, and got one step closer to becoming reality.
SB
723 would allocate electoral votes by congressional district, and
reward two statewide electors to the candidate who wins the most
districts statewide. Had this bill been enacted last year, Mitt
Romney would have received 9 of Virginia’s 13 electors, despite losing
the state’s popular vote!
It's
clear that the Republicans have decided that if they can't win over the
majority of voters, they’ll just change the rules to rig the results --
and we have to let them know that they can’t away with such an overt
power grab.
Thanks for all that you do,
Ben Betz, Online Strategy Manager
From: Ben Betz, People For the American Way
Date: Saturday, January 19, 2013
Re: GOP Moves to Rig the Next Election
Make SURE Every Vote Counts -- Speak Out to Stop the Right's New Scheme to Rig Elections!
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Dear Robert,
Imagine
that when President Obama won Ohio in 2012, instead of getting all the
state’s electoral votes, he only got six of them, while Mitt Romney,
who lost, got 12 … that each candidate was awarded electoral
votes based on how many congressional districts they won in the state.
Now, imagine this didn’t happen just in Ohio, but also in Pennsylvania,
Wisconsin, Michigan and other “blue states” that right now happen to
have state governments completely controlled by Republicans.
This isn’t just some
thought experiment. It’s the latest Republican scheme to rig America’s
elections in their favor, and it could work … unless we can create a
public backlash against it.
Actions like this
petition will help create the necessary backlash that will send these
proposals down in flames in states like Pennsylvania, where a bill has
already been introduced, and others like Ohio, Wisconsin and Michigan,
where lawmakers are discussing it.
We’ll use the petition to
lobby lawmakers in the states and make sure the media is giving
attention to how unpopular this vote rigging scheme is.
If the scheme is enacted, the will of the people would mean nothing in
those states. And, nationally, the playing field would be dramatically
shifted towards Republican presidential candidates. That’s because one
of the results of the Tea Party wave election of 2010 was that
right-wing Republicans controlled the redistricting process in these
states, and congressional districts there were gerrymandered within an
inch of their lives, ensuring more “safe” Republican districts. It’s the
same reason that Republicans maintained a healthy majority in the House
of Representatives in 2012 despite losing the congressional popular
vote nationally to Democrats by 1.4 million votes -- more than a whole
percentage point.
In states like Ohio,
where Republicans have a super majority in the legislature, they have
the power to move this affront to democracy through unilaterally,
bulldozing any opposition!
The head of the
Republican National Committee, Reince Priebus, supports the scheme, and
it’s gaining traction amongst GOP state lawmakers. We need to stop this
NOW, before it gets too far!
Another similar idea being floated by Republicans in these states is electoral vote apportionment based on percentage of vote,
instead of by congressional district. This could theoretically be a
fair system, but only if EVERY state did it. With only blue,
Democratic-leaning states splitting their electoral votes and
definitively red, Republican states remaining winner-take-all, the
national field would still shift dramatically to the Republicans favor
-- and AWAY from the will of the people. To put it bluntly:election rigged.
Thank you for helping to save our democracy by protecting the voice of the voter -- the American Way.
-- Ben Betz, Online Strategy Manager
