Pennsylvania House Republicans Introduce Bill To Rig The 2016 Presidential Election

[Adenoid_Hynkel]

Source: Think Progress

Earlier this week, Republican National Committee Chair Reince Priebus endorsed a Republican plan to rig the next presidential election to make it nearly impossible for the Democratic candidate to win the White House, no matter who the American people vote for. The election-rigging plan, which would allocate electoral votes by congressional district rather than by states as a whole in a handful of states that consistently vote for Democratic presidential candidates, would have allowed Mitt Romney to narrowly win the Electoral College last November despite losing the popular vote by nearly four points.

On Monday, seven Pennsylvania Republican state representatives introduced a bill to make this vote-rigging scheme a reality in their state. Under their bill, the winner of Pennsylvania as a whole will receive only 2 of the state’s 20 electoral votes, while “[e]ach of the remaining presidential electors shall be elected in the presidential elector’s congressional district.”

Pennsylvania is a blue state that voted for the Democratic presidential candidate in every single presidential race for the last two decades, so implementing the GOP election-rigging plan in Pennsylvania would make it much harder for a Democrat to be elected to the White House. Moreover, because of gerrymandering, it is overwhelmingly likely that the Republican candidate will win a majority of Pennsylvania’s electoral votes even if the Democrat wins the state by a very comfortable margin. Despite the fact that President Obama won Pennsylvania by more than 5 points last November, Democrats carried only 5 of the state’s 18 congressional seats. Accordingly, Obama would have likely won only 7 of the state’s 20 electoral votes if the GOP vote rigging plan had been in effect last year.

One mitigating factor is that only 7 of the Pennsylvania House’s 109 Republicans are original sponsors of the election-rigging bill, so it is unclear that this is a major priority for the GOP state house caucus. Nevertheless, both Gov. Tom Corbett (R-PA) and state Senate Majority Leader Dominic Pileggi (R-PA) support the plan, so there is a real risk that Pennsylvania Republicans will try to write the voters out of the next presidential election.

Read more: http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2013/01/16/1451351/pennsylvania-house-republicans-introduce-bill-to-rig-the-2016-presidential-election/

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And so it begins...

[SunSeeker]

1. Rachel Maddow warned about this last night.

The swing states with red state legislatures but whose population voted for Obama, like PA and WI, are going all out with this type of legislation. It scares the shit out of me. If all those swing states had gotten rid of winner take all before the November 2012 election, then Romney would have won. They're not going to make that mistake again.

[davidpdx]

10. I just wonder how this could be stopped

Given the fact that two other states have done so (Maine and Nebraska). Was there not any legal challenges to the laws that were passed in those states?

[SunSeeker]

31. Dunno. Wish I did. nt

[kardonb]

30. rigging elections

Typical republicon :if you can't win honestly , steal the election . GWB did it twice .

[ballaratocker]

2. This is so craven and bold. I'm dumbfounded.

[samsingh]

3. this is a huge threat to America

[ReRe]

4. But, but....

...is it Constitutional? What does the FEC say? If they somehow pass it in Congress, it will never reach the President's desk, and if it does, he'll veto it and I don't think the Congress could override the veto, with this new 113th Congress. This will never come to pass.... my opinion.

[reverend_tim]

9. no, they are going to change for their state only

[ReRe]

11. But still...

....will it go against federal law? Fed Election Law?

[caseymoz]

13. No.

Constitutionally, states get to decide how their electoral votes are alloted.

Nothing short of the Supreme Court or a constitutional amendment will stop this. I don't know case law, but the SCOTUS might rule against it. A good argument might be that the electoral system has to be uniform or votes are not equal in some states. However, this is mostly the same SCOTUS that ruled on Bush v Gore.

Personally, I think it's past time to get rid of the Electoral College. It just gives an unlimited opportunity for election rigging.

[John2]

15. That wouldn't be true

if the majority of the citizens of Pennsylvannia disagree with it. The way I see it, this is a way disenfranchise the votes of millions of people in the State by one Political Party on the National level. What is to say the Democratic Party can't do this also? There is a possibility of of the candidate winning a state by a huge majority based on highly populated areas of the State such as the urban areas. Gerrymandering should be UnConstitutional and now the Republicans have even moved further to Disenfranchise people's votes. This attempt is blatantly explicit and easy to prove even more with the further attempts on the National level. It is the theft of Democracy by one Party. That in itself would be UnConstitutional and a good case for the Department of Justice to pursue against individuals in the Republican. That is a case the Democratic Party, including the Justice Department, Democratic Congressional members, President in conjunction with citizens of these Blue States should pursue in the Justice system against the Republican party and it's apparatus. What the Republican party is essentially doing is trying to drown out the will of the people and it is mostly in urban areas based on race. instead of just sitting back and accepting this Theft, they should be up in arms and taking action against this dangerous turn of events by this extremist Party. In my opinion under the first amendment, the Republican party reminds me of the Nazi Party when they did the same.

[caseymoz]

34. Which means that the SCOTUS should stop it.

As I said. So we agree and you're right. And it has to be the SCOTUS, because the Constitution says nothing specific about disallowing this. The way it's written, the States have the complete right allot electoral votes. However, this brings it in conflict with the 14th Amendment, so, in theory, the courts should rule against this. There's at least enough to bring a case and stop it by injunction in the meantime.

Now, you could also go after the Repubs as a criminal organization, as you say. There really is no precedent for that, but it can be done.

I thought Nebraska and Maine decided theirs by percent of popular vote, not county. If we're unlucky, the court will rule that Constitutional, which will still split PA's electoral votes. Fact is, there's not a thing we can do to prevent them from passing it. Therefore, they'll win round one.

[Firebrand Gary]

39. The United States would lose ALL credibility Internationally. Period.

The rig of the 2010 redistricting is a full argument that has yet to be made. The combination of Bush V. Gore, the addition of Justice Roberts and Justice Alito, Citizens United and the 2010 redistricting rig has already greatly damaged the United States.

Our Democracy is under threat. The People are very, very close to no longer selecting whom they are governed by....

[caseymoz]

41. Our credibility is gone.

And since Repubs are exceptionalists, they don't care what the international community thinks. That argument would mean nothing to them.

Right now, we're just trying to recapture what we lost starting in 2000.

[dmallind]

56. But it cannot be done by Democrats

This is not, as usual, an issue of the spinelessness of Dem establiishment folks either. This works one way because there are many states with Dem majorities but where the majority of Congressional districts are Republican. There are no states I can think of where it's the other way round.

[happyslug]

21. The problem is the wording of the actual US Constitution

Article 1, Section 1, Paragraph 2:

Each State shall appoint, in such Manner as the Legislature thereof may direct, a Number of Electors, equal to the whole Number of Senators and Representatives to which the State may be entitled in the Congress: but no Senator or Representative, or Person holding an Office of Trust or Profit under the United States, shall be appointed an Elector.

Thus Congress has no say, neither does the Federal Courts, on who becomes an elector, it is up to the State Legislature.

[SoapBox]

5. Good gawd...

So the Pukes are going to start early, throwing shit around and seeing if they can get any to stick.

They'll try and try and try...and end up in court, time and time again...until they find some crazy Puke judge, that will side with them.

...amazing. So corrupt and so criminal.

[Lobo27]

6. Well...

I bet if my home state of Texas goes blue, like many feel it will do in 2016 or 2020 that they will do the exact same thing. Only the major cities voted dem, and everything else was rep. They'll do it to because they know that if California stays blue, and if Texas goes blue and New York stays blue. They'' most likely never win a presidential election.

So, lets say they do this in multiple states, and in 2016 Biden or Clinton win by 5-6million votes, but don't get the electoral college wouldn't that cause a massive shit storm. The winner would have no mandate to be president...

[LiberalLovinLug]

44. Never stopped them before

With FAUX and talk radio on their side slagging all the "sore losers" 24/7, and President Ryan declaring he has "political capital to spend" we could see another scenerio like we saw in Farenheit 9/11 with Biden banging his gavel while rejecting any and all appeals to the results. *shudder*

[AndyTiedye]

7. And So it Begins

Is there ANYTHING we can do about this? Anything at all?

[John2]

17. I think

there is but it depends on how people feel about their Democracy. It is the Democratic entire Party that can do something about the Republican Party if they mobilize the people in their Party from top to bottom against an extremist Republican Party that has become dangerous to this Democracy and country instead of just sitting silent and letting them do this. The Governors and Legislatures can easily be recalled from office with State Amendments based on this. Future safeguards can be placed in State Constitutions to prevent any one party from trying to change a State Electoral process also without the approval from the actual clear overwhelming majority of the States also. No one Party should be able to change a State's Electoral process ever!.

[mrmpa]

50. What we can do here in Pensylvania...........

is to kick Corbett out of offic in 2014, and kick out as many Republican legislators as we can. If this becomes law under Corbett, then if there s a new Governor in 2014 and a new legislature, the law is repealed.

[blkmusclmachine]

63. FORWARD!

[pansypoo53219]

8. rinse penis suggested something similar in WI.

i guess they don't BELIEVE in their message.

[Democat]

12. There should be a federal standard for this, otherwise national elections are compromised

This is not strictly a state issue. Imagine a state decided that all electoral votes would go to the Republican was on the bill, regardless of votes. Would that be a state issue? The Supreme Court of federal government will have to get involved eventually if this continues.

[mwb970]

14. Isn't this cheating, pure and simple?

How can this be presented as anything other than a power grab by right-wing assholes? I am stunned by the level of un-Americanism and inhumanity in today's far-right "Christian" conservatives.

Forget the Taliban. THIS is the enemy.

[blkmusclmachine]

64. Forget the Taliban. THIS is the enemy.

+1

[RandiFan1290]

16. After 2000 who can blame them?

Dems rolled over easily and treated Bush as if he won 50 states. He got his tax cut only 4 months after taking office.
I bet they pull this off easily with little to no pushback from the "dems"

[blkmusclmachine]

65. Yep. "Bi-partisanship" only goes 1 way in DC.

Team Blue is more like Team Purple.

[Faryn Balyncd]

18. The GOP attempt t gerrymander presidential elections is IMPORTANT.

[Blasphemer]

37. Extremely

If this gains any kind of traction, the correct response is a movement to eliminate the electoral college. I think the threat alone would cause them to retreat.

[Faryn Balyncd]

53. If the Electoral College is to be ABUSED by the GOP, perhaps it is time to end it.

[MynameisBlarney]

19. Why aren't they under arrest

and facing charges?

[bobclark86]

22. Because they didn't do anything illegal.

That's why. The Constitution says states choose how they apportion Electoral College votes.

Want a change? Ditch the Electoral College.

[MynameisBlarney]

24. dammit

I fucking hate the gop

[AsahinaKimi]

43. Agree with you there...

I wish I could type out some of my thoughts right now. But I will keep them to myself for now.

[Coyotl]

20. I spell futility with an F U.

I'm reminded of a runaway bus going downhill on ice. Yeah, you have to try something ... but the result is inevitable, you crash at the bottom of the hill.

[cecilfirefox]

23. I had gotten wind of this a few weeks after the election, if you can't win CHEAT-

the conservative way!

[Skee]

25. PA Problems

PA has unaccountable politicians in office
because PA has blackboxes, not ballots.

If only this issue were limited to PA ...

[grntuscarora]

26. Aw, crap.

My rep is one of the sponsors.
Time to draft a letter. Not that he'll pay any attention to it. There are so few dems in this district, he doesn't have to.

[Skee]

27. He doesn't have to pay any attention

because you have an iVotronic or Shouptronic or similar instead of a real ballot ...

[grntuscarora]

28. Actually, we're so rural

we still use paper ballots at my polling place. But I get your point.

[Skee]

29. In Philadelphia

they use the same defective electronics
which produced thousands of fake 'votes'
in Ohio in 2004 ...

[Sirveri]

55. Can be fixed. GOTV for SecState, replace the blackboxes, kick the GOP out of the gov seat.

Will they fix it? How many votes can they flip, the more they flip the more likely they are to get caught.

[LiberalFighter]

32. This needs to be labeled in public as "They want to rigged the elections"

Keep saying it over and over. Local citizens in the state need to write letters to the editors and even to their city and county officials.

[CANDO]

33. Dems just won all state level row offices.

Including the 1st woman and Democrat elected as State Attorney General, Kathleen Kane. Governor Corbett sits alone as only GOP state level official. State House and Senate are lost causes. Census year gerrymandered to death. But you know what? Democrats sat on their asses in 2010, which allowed the GOP to redraw districts.

[blkmusclmachine]

66. DEM's never really "win." They just lose LESS.

.
Operation Northwoods: The 9/11 You Never Knew

[Blue Nile]

35. Tough task

Sorry for cross-posting across threads but I had to express my feelings again

This is in my home state of Pennsylvania so it does affect me directly.Although anything is possible,I have a feeling that the window for this kind of change has probably closed in my state of PA.Prior to the last election the GOP controlled the State Senate 30-20.In the November 2012 election,the democrats picked up Senate seats in Erie,Harrisburg and Pittsburgh and the Senate is now 27-23 in favor of the GOP.In the State House of Representatives there was again a gain by the Democrats but not as large as the Senate (went from 112-91 to 110-93 in favor of GOP). This kind of tight margins make it hard for the change in law to happen easily. It will only serve to increase Democratic turnout in a non-presidential year putting a lot of GOP held seats in play. The margin in PA in the Presidential election was 5 points (52-47) and a GOP candidate with moderate appeal can still hope to win the state. President Bush got 48.5 % of the vote in 2004 and with more effort could have carried the state. Not all Democratic candidates of the future are going to be able to match President Obama's appeal.

This Bill is co-sponsored by Rep.Godshall and Rep.Seth Grove (he had introduced a similar Bill in 2009 also). The Bill is now in the State Government Committee where only one of the co-sponsors is a member (Rep.Barrar). Assuming that all the Democrats in the House unite against this-it will need 102 out of 110 House republicans to vote for this and will be a tough number to muster. The task in the Senate is much more difficult for the Republicans as the margins are very tight. The Republicans will need 26 out of 27 Senators to vote for this (By PA law-the Bill should have a clear majority for final passage and the Lt.Gov cannot cast a tie-breaking vote for final passage of a Bill). The last similar Bill introduced by Sen.Pilleggi (R-Chester) failed to make it out of committee. He has floated an alternate idea of proportional distribution but has not given any details about this and has only said he plans to introduce a Bill later.

Gov.Corbett is struggling at this time with ratings in the high 30s and although he has hedged his views on this before I am not so sure he is going to put his re-election at risk.In 2010 he won with 54% of the vote where the turnout was a hair under 4 million votes compared to almost 5.7 million votes in the 2012 presidential election. It is not in his interest to drive up Democratic voter turnout on this issue.He is trailing in polls against most Democrats polled including Kane,Sestak etc.

I did not mean this post to imply that we should drop our guard and become complacent but only to highlight that though it is possible it is far from a smooth-sailing slam-dunk. My feeling on these type of Bills in all these states is that there is 1 or 2 driven legislators who keep introducing these Bills in every session but generally fail to attract sufficient traction amongst the larger caucus.
It is not in the interests of a majority of these republican legislators to attract more attention to their districts and make re-election difficult.Also the beneficiary of this rule change is some yet unknown Presidential candidate who might still go on to lose the General election

[Skee]

51. Pennsylvania?

There are no real elections in PA.

Ballots have been replaced by blackboxes.

No better way to turn a blue state red.

[marezdotes]

36. 2014 is going to be very important.

[Roland99]

38. Make it each state's Senatorial district and I'd be ok with that.

[FreeBC]

40. K&R

[brooklynite]

42. I suspect that the end result would actually be beneficial...

A condition where the Democrat consistently won the popular vote and lost the Electoral Vote would push the nation to a popular vote process pretty quickly.

[Hawaii Hiker]

45. The scary thing about this is

if votes are split in blue states only and no red ones, this not only means the Democratic candiate cant win, but the GOP would be free to nominate a complete fucking crazy like Santorum, Gingrich, Tancredo, etc. because the repug would win if you spot their candiate with 30-50 electoral votes..

[AndyTiedye]

54. Yup. If This Passes in the Swing States, It's Checkmate, Game Over, They Win Forever

[Blue Nile]

46. Stop sweating

Long one way road to nowhere for this Bill. Tough to get through PA house & Senate for reasons I have mentioned above

[illegaloperation]

48. Don't underestimate them.

The Republicans are desperate. They are heading for extinction and may be willing to use a late-ditch effort to win no matter how partisan their actions are view.

[blue neen]

52. There is nothing that is too low for Pennsylvania Republicans to try.

Nothing.

[blkmusclmachine]

67. There is nothing too low for Republicans to try.

+1

[illegaloperation]

47. Pennsylvania has a Democratic State Attorney General

I am wondering if Kathleen Kane has anyway to block this if it came to pass.

[Dont call me Shirley]

49. It's time to charge these guys with crimes. DOJ, Holder, Let's GO!

[blkmusclmachine]

68. Holder's too busy with the phony "War on Drugs" to be bothered with GOP election rigging.

Priorities, y'know.

[rasputinkhlyst]

57. Anyone supporting this bill would be in violation of their oath of office regarding the will of the

American people and should be impeached and banned from ever holding any elected office. Petition anyone?

[jmowreader]

58. This is the easy way to win the White House

On the Bullwinkle Show Bullwinkle often tried to pull rabbits out of hats. Rabbits never came out of them.

The modern GOP is like that: they try to create jobs by cutting taxes and spending, which leads to job loss every time. We can't afford more job loss.

Since they can't come up with anything that will work, go to Plan B: disenfranchisement. If this gambit holds up, expect a blue state with lots of red rural areas to decide to award all its electors to the party that wins the most districts. Why should New York State be blue just because of one city? Possibly because that one city has more residents than many whole states, but I digress.

[24601]

59. There are already two states that aren't winner take all. Nebraska and Maine divide their electoral

votes. Because they are small states, it hasn't been a big issue. Of course it would be different for a big state.

[Great Caesars Ghost]

60. Like MI. and WI. two presidential blue states. with repub majorities in both houses....

If they had that law, we would see a President Romney.

[24601]

61. If every state did this, it would also force candidates to campaign in the big states

rather than concentrate only on the swing states. We might lose some races, but over time, it would transform elections to nationwide contests. Right now, California, Texas and New York are ignored.

[blkmusclmachine]

62. PA, OH, FL, WI, MI ...

Meanwhile, big Blue states like CA are coming on board to flip all their votes to the national EC winner. What a dream proposition for the Red Team. Permanent Majority. And once again, Team Blue is Missing In Action.

.

Operation Northwoods: The 9/11 You Never Knew

[daybranch]

69. I wonder does

Pennsylvania have right to petition and referendum as we do in Ohio? They sure need it.