Pennsylvania House Bill 94 - "Let's Make PA a Red State"

[Gil Hamilton]

I had to look this up to make sure the articles I saw on this were true, but it looks like the PA General Assembly House actually proposed this bill HB94, which amends PA election law in the following way:

1) When selecting electors for the election of the President of the United States, two electors will be granted based on the State Popular Vote.
2) The other 18 electors will be portioned out by the votes per Congressional district.

The guys that wrote it had the following memo, which is on that link.

MEMORANDUM

Posted: December 19, 2012 03:32 PM
From: Representative Robert Godshall and Rep. Seth Grove
To: All House members
Subject: Reallocate Presidential Electors Based on Congressional Districts
As you know, the Electoral College is the institution that officially elects the President and Vice President of the United States every four years. Electors are chosen by each state and the District of Columbia. The number of electors in each State is equal to the number of members of Congress to which the State is entitled. Currently, the total number of electors is 538. Article II, Section 1, Clause 2 of the U.S. Constitution specifies the number of electors to which each state is entitled and state legislatures decide how they are chosen.

In nearly all states, except Maine and Nebraska, electors are awarded on a winner-take-all basis to the candidate who wins the most votes in that state. Although no elector is required by law to honor a pledge, in the overwhelming majority of cases each elector votes as pledged.

Maine and Nebraska both use an alternative method of distributing their electoral votes, known as the Congressional District Method. In the near future, I intend to introduce legislation to implement the Congressional District Method in Pennsylvania. Under this legislation, one elector will be awarded to the winner of the plurality in each congressional district and the remaining two electors will be granted to the winner of the statewide popular vote.

I believe that the Congressional District Method will increase voter turnout and encourage candidates to campaign in all states rather than just those that are competitive. Most importantly, this method of selecting presidential electors will give a stronger voice to voters in all regions of our great Commonwealth.

In other words, PA Republicans want to legislate Pennsylvania into being a defacto Red State, despite the fact that Democrats typically get over a million votes more than Republicans in Pennsylvania. Due to the massive PA Gerrymander, only 5 out of 18 congressional districts are Democrats despite the disparity between Democrats and Republicans, which (if the votes follow the same trend as the Congressmen) would actually give more electoral votes to Republicans than Democrats.

I don't actually think this is going to fly, though given that Republicans control both chambers of the General Assembly and also the Governor apparently supports this, it's actually possible.

[SCRawl]

This kind of system can be made to make sense, provided: 1. Every state adopts it; and 2. Congressional redistricting is taken out of the hands of the politicians and put into the hands of neutral, nonpartisan bureaucrats. Note that proviso #2 only makes sense if actual nonpartisan bureaucrats exist.

[Grandmaster Jogurt]

If ever state does it then why not just go by the electoral vote at that point, since this would be the same concept only poorly executed.

Not that I think any excuse to get rid of gerrymandering is anything but good, though.

[Lord MJ]

A few weeks ago, in another thread I warned that the GOP was trying to do that...

This would only work if every state does it, and it's not based on districts at all but percentage of total popular vote in the state.

PA is not the only state that's doing this. States like Wisconsin, Michigan, Ohio. Are all coming up with these schemes.

If they all succeed. It would virtually eliminate the chances of a Democrat ever becoming President again, assuming all the strong Red states stay Winner take all.

[The Romulan Republic]

Its at times like this I wish we could charge the GOP leaders with treason. I know we can't, but this is just sickening.

[Lord MJ]

The only thing that will stop this is popular outrage. But most people don't even know about this and are not paying attention.

[bilateralrope]

This kind of system can be made to make sense, provided: 1. Every state adopts it; and 2. Congressional redistricting is taken out of the hands of the politicians and put into the hands of neutral, nonpartisan bureaucrats. Note that proviso #2 only makes sense if actual nonpartisan bureaucrats exist.

Why let any bureaucrats make the decision ?

Instead, shouldn't the borders of each district be decided by an algorithm that leaves no room for interpretation by the people implementing it ?
Something like the shortest splitline algorithm. Then it doesn't matter how biased the implementers are because they have no legal way to adjust the result.

[wcdeich4]

What we really need is for CNN to cover this. Fox won't cover it & most popele who watch MSNBC are already against it.

[xt828]

2. Congressional redistricting is taken out of the hands of the politicians and put into the hands of neutral, nonpartisan bureaucrats. Note that proviso #2 only makes sense if actual nonpartisan bureaucrats exist.

Why let any bureaucrats make the decision ?

I think (an I don't mean to put words in your mouth, SCRawl) that the suggestion is to establish a body analagous to your Representation Commission and our AEC, with the purpose of being solely responsible for redistribution - so what you're suggesting, but with the bureaucratic framework to actually do it too.