2008 presidential results by congressional district
Last month, Pennsylvania Republicans unveiled a plan to change the way the state awards its electoral votes, going from a traditional winner-take-all system to a method that would hand them out to the winner of each congressional district. This nakedly partisan move was designed only to aid GOP fortunes, but even so, it's met with stiff opposition from many Republican office-holders who fear unintended consequences. As such, the scheme seems to have run aground (for now).
But that isn't stopping at least one Republican legislator in Wisconsin from trying to push the same idea. Rep. Dan LeMahieu sent the following email to every elected member of the state House and Senate earlier today, asking them to co-sponsor his legislation (which you can view here as a PDF):
Currently when we vote for president, whoever wins the popular vote in Wisconsin receives all of the Electoral College votes for Wisconsin, or winner take all. In the case of Wisconsin the number of votes is 10, one for each congressional district and 2 at large.
This is how Electoral College votes are decided in 48 of 50 states. Two states, Nebraska and Maine, use a different method called the Congressional District Method.
With the district method, a state is divided into its congressional districts, and each district awards its Electoral College vote to the winner in that district, and the winner of the state wide vote is awarded the two at large electoral votes.
This bill would change Wisconsin to a state using the Congressional District Method. Each congressional district would choose their own Electoral College vote based on the popular vote in that congressional district and the 2 at large votes would be decided by the popular vote of the entire state.
This method would better protect the votes in each congressional district. If I live in a congressional district that votes for a candidate that loses the statewide vote this method would allow my district to cast a vote for the candidate the majority of the voters in that district supported.
This method would also decrease the incentive for fraud because you would only be affecting the outcome of one congressional district and the two at large votes, instead of all ten votes.
Fortunately, Democrats are wise to this chicanery. State Rep. Kelda Roys (who, as it happens, is also running for Tammy Baldwin's open House seat) sent the following email to her fellow Democrats in the Assembly and Senate:
Please do not sign on to this bill. While I agree that there are significant problems with our current “winner-take-all” system of awarding our state’s electoral college votes, this bill actually will exacerbate those problems. Furthermore, it does nothing to address the real problem – the ability to become president even if a majority of citizens vote for the other candidate.
Finally, this bill, if enacted, would make Wisconsin totally irrelevant in the presidential election. With 2 of Wisconsin’s congressional districts likely to vote solidly Democratic, and 4 or 5 likely to vote solidly Republican due to the recent gerrymandering, there would be no reason for either major party nominee to spend any time or resources campaigning here or responding to our state’s needs.
A much better alternative to allocate our electoral college votes is an interstate compact called National Popular Vote, which would guarantee the Presidency to the candidate who receives the most popular votes in the entire US while preserving the electoral college. More information is available here: www.nationalpopularvote.com. This compact has been adopted in states possessing 132 electoral votes – 49% of the 270 votes to activate it.
Of course, Republicans still control all the levers of power in Wisconsin—both chambers of the state legislature and the governor's mansion. So if Scott Walker and his minions wanted to ram LeMahieu's bill through, they certainly could, at least in theory. But as we explained with regard to Pennsylvania, there are a lot of reasons why these shenanigans are likely to go nowhere, even if Democrats are powerless. Still, I would put nothing past Walker, so it will be very important to keep an eye on any further developments here.