No, No, No, Don't Split Electoral Votes By Congressional District

[octoberlib]

Husted’s solution to this perceived problem of Democrats and the national media picking on him? He says we should make Ohio less important in the election by dividing up our electoral votes by Congressional district.Didn't we stake this vampire already? Most states allow whatever party holds power at the start of each decade to map their congressional districts. In this data-heavy era, parties take the opportunity to pack their opponents into a small number of districts, and spread their own voter over a maximum number of marginally safe districts. The result: It's possible for the other party to win most of the votes for House in a state, but take away only a few districts.

I can't overstate how disastrous this would be. Instead of a small chance of a popular vote/electoral vote split, you'd have, every four years, multiple chances for a majority of voters to support one candidate, but partisan gerrymanders handing the election to the loser. It would slant the election away from urban areas and give disproportionate powers to rural areas. You couldn't come up with a more tenacious assault on one-man-one-vote. Don't do it, people.

http://www.slate.com/blogs/weigel/2012/11/09/no_no_no_don_t_split_electoral_votes_by_congressional_district.html

[exboyfil]

1. Start with a reset in 2020 and with computer drawn maps

based upon a randomness algorithm.

[CreekDog]

7. popular vote period, no gimmicks

no halfway measures.

[exboyfil]

9. Only many OECD countries have a direct election

for their chief executive? Would you want to see a 2000 Florida repeated on a national level? Winner take all by Congressional district at least limits the damage of a close election.

People are critical of 2000 Florida, and they are rightfully so, but think about 537 votes out of 5.8 million votes (0.01%). No human made measuring system is designed to accurately pick up this result.

Other close popular vote elections:

1880 James Garfield (0.09%)
1960 John F. Kennedy (0.17%)
1968 Richard Nixon (0.70%)
2000 George Bush (-0.51%)

Try to run a national recount under these conditions.

[Retrograde]

12. If we have the patchwork voting system we have now, a national recount is difficult

If we simplified it, with, say, one ballot for federal offices and one ballot for everything else, it would be easier. Let the states handle their own elections any way they want, but have uniform Federal processes for Federal offices.

[struggle4progress]

2. I agree: it would be a disaster

[Rstrstx]

3. I might be in favor of it if and only if...

...the state's districts were drawn by a nonpartisan (or evenly split D/R) committee that wouldn't have to answer to anyone. Good luck with that.

[Fresh_Start]

4. split electoral votes by the popular vote

but not by gerrymandered districts

[CreekDog]

8. popular vote, no gimmicks

[Filibuster Harry]

11. agree

That's the way to do it if any reform

[Dem2TheCore]

5. Gerrymander the Electoral College? Fuck that!

[democrattotheend]

6. I don't like that idea at all. There are much better ideas

Like adding at-large electoral votes for the winner of the popular vote, and the interstate compact if it gets enough support. Republican-leaning states might now have more incentive to join.

[liberalmuse]

10. Oh HELL no.

They've already gerrymandered their way into the House. We need to reset all of our districts. I like the Green Party's idea on that.

[RightOnTime]

13. Fear is the driving factor to keep it like it is

Both sides are afraid to split electoral votes by congressional districts as battle ground states would become irrelevant. Every vote would count, the farmer and the big businessman's vote would weigh the same. Every state in my opinion should have an uneven amount of districts that would vote. The states would have a clear winner. As it stands now,a politician goes to the congressional district in a state that has the most influence and they put all their eggs in that basket to sway voters their way, the rest of the state is left holding the bag of one groups decisions. How is that a fair representation of the whole state?