January 25, 2013 by David K. Sutton
Subverting Democracy: The Republican Electoral Vote-Rigging Scheme
Efforts to rig electoral college votes in favor of future GOP presidential candidates shows us why we can never underestimate Republicans.
Instead of waking up and realizing the country is changing and maybe they need to change too, Republicans instead would rather subvert democracy.
What The 2012 Election Would Look Like Under The Republicans’ Vote-Rigging Plan:
On Wednesday, Virginia’s Republican-controlled legislature became one of the first to advance a bill that would allocate electoral votes by congressional district. Last week, Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus endorsed pushing through similar proposals in other states with Republican legislative majorities.
The strategy would have states alter the way they translate individual votes into electors — thereby giving Republican candidates an advantage. Had the 2012 election been apportioned in every state according to these new Republicans plans, Romney would have led Obama by at least 11 electoral votes.
The result? — Had the Republican vote-rigging scheme been in place across all 50 states for the 2012 election, instead of a 332 to 206 electoral victory for President Obama, we would now be saying President Romney. The Republican candidate would have won the election 273 to 262.
Keep in mind that this has nothing to do with the popular vote, which President Obama won by 5 million votes. There have been presidents elected who lost the popular vote, but not by such a wide popular vote margin of nearly 4 percent. For those who argue that this “plan” makes for fairer elections, allowing rural areas to match the influence of population centers, I ask: Why does land mass matter? The vote should reflect the will of the people, not land mass. Just because conservatives are more likely to live in rural areas is not a reason to further damage an already broken electoral college system. At a time when many are calling for an end to the electoral college, Republicans plan to take full advantage of it to win elections without winning the popular vote.
Do Republicans think Americans will stand for this? Not only did a plurality of American voters choose Obama, a majority voted for him. Would nearly 66 million people accept such a fraud committed against the country? Do Republicans care about the optics?
Republicans are doing what they always do — banking on an ignorant American public. But expecting Americans to remain ignorant on election day when the media (well, except Fox News) is sure to play up the disenfranchisement of the popular vote? — I don’t think Republicans are thinking that far ahead.
The party of old, white, narrow-minded conservatives isn’t about to adapt to a changing country, not if they can cheat their way to victory.
