Heads-Up: 'GOP May Revive Plan To Influence Electoral College' - MSNBC [View all]

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GOP may revive plan to influence Electoral College
By Zachary Roth - MSNBC
11/10/14 12:51 PM—UPDATED 11/10/14 02:59 PM

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For some Republicans, making it harder for Democratic-leaning groups to vote isn’t enough. They also want to give themselves an undemocratic leg up in the Electoral College.

The GOP’s wins last week in statehouses across the country are tempting conservatives to revive a plan to sway the Electoral College in their favor by dividing up their Electoral Votes (EVs) rather than giving them all to the popular vote winner. The result would be to make it much more likely that Republicans could win the White House while losing the popular vote nationally.

Several Republican-controlled states have flirted with the idea in recent years before backing off, appearing to calculate that the political controversy the move would stir up would outweigh the upside. But Tuesday’s sweeping GOP wins, the intensifying polarization of our politics, and the party’s recent struggles in presidential elections could put it back on the agenda.

An article Friday by Jim Geraghty of National Review, a leading opinion shaper for conservatives, floated moving forward with the plan in six states – Michigan, Ohio, Wisconsin, Florida, Iowa and Nevada – where Republicans will have total control next year. Doing so would make it “nearly impossible for the Democratic nominee to win,” Geraghty wrote. A map in the article shows much of the midwest, including Democratic strongholds like Michigan and Illinois, colored red. A caption below the map calls the idea “pretty tempting.”

And an op-ed the same day in the Capitol Hill newspaper Roll Call by Rob Richie and Claire Daviss of Fairvote, a good government group, also suggested it could happen.

Here’s how the scheme would work:

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More: http://www.msnbc.com/msnbc/gop-may-revive-plan-rig-electoral-college