The 2012 election ended three months ago and ever since then, Republicans have been trying to enact laws to rig the next presidential election in 2016. The GOP tried to win the election by enacting voter ID laws in over half the states to make it difficult for minorities to vote and give the win to Mitt Romney. That obviously did not work well for them.
Now, several states with Republican governors are considered making changes to the electoral college votes in their states. Ohio and Virginia law makers considered bills to allow their states to proportion their electoral college votes but rejected the idea. In 48 states, including Ohio and Virginia, the winner of a state’s presidential election, takes all of the electoral votes. Ohio and Virginia declined to make those changes. Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell vehemently opposed the change, as well as other prominent Republican leaders
Now Pennsylvania, with its Republican governor, is the next state that is considering a bill to change to how the electoral college votes are given. The purpose of the law would dilute again minorities’ votes. Most minorities live in the urban areas and not the surrounding counties. If the winner take all law were replaced with the Republican gerrymandering scheme, the counties which heavily concentrate non-minorities, would receive a share of the electoral votes. The effect would be to unfairly swing elections to Republican candidates. Apparently, the GOP’s new motto is if you can’t beat them, then cheat them.
Pennsylvania Democratic Party Chairman Jim Burn, Senator Leach and Rep. Mike Sturla will hold a press conference to call on Pennsylvania Republicans to reject the Electoral College vote rigging scheme. Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell is expected to appear with them in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania on Friday morning, February 8 to call on law makers to reject the bill. Pennsylvania State Senator Jay Costa said, “Gov. Corbett needs to quickly, and unequivocally, reject this attempt to destroy a system that has served Pennsylvania well.” Pennsylvania Rep. Frank Dermody (D. Allegheny) went further by stating, “that the Republican plan “is about rigging the game and diminishing Pennsylvania’s influence over who becomes our next president.” “In order to improve their chances in Pennsylvania, the national Republican Party should alter its extreme policy views rather than rigging the rules of elections,” Dermody said. “It makes no sense for Pennsylvania to arbitrarily reduce its considerable national political profile and relegate us to small state status.
It remains to be seen if the bill will be passed or rejected. Pennsylvania has 20 electoral votes that presently, the winner takes all. Instead of diversifying their platform and focusing on issues that would appeal to more voters, including minorities and women, Republican state law makers are attempting to make changes to laws to dilute minorities’ votes. And the fight for fairness and justice in voting laws continues.