GOP Moves to Rig the Next Election

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.

Sign the petition now to tell Republicans that the American people won’t stand for their brazen attempts to rig Presidential elections!

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.

Speak out now to tell Republicans this election rigging scheme is undemocratic and it's unacceptable!

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!

Tell Republicans to stop their latest attempt at vote rigging! If enough people speak out, they’ll HAVE to listen!

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.

Speak out now to tell Republicans this proportional electoral vote scheme is election rigging, plain and simple -- it’s undemocratic and it’s unacceptable!

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!

Tell Republicans to stop their latest attempt at vote rigging! If enough people speak out, they’ll HAVE to listen!

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.

Help us stop this by being among the first to be part of what needs to be a national movement to resoundingly and unequivocally REJECT this latest election rigging scheme!

Thank you for helping to save our democracy by protecting the voice of the voter -- the American Way.

-- Ben Betz, Online Strategy Manager