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Ohio SOS at it again...Husted wants electoral votes based on districts
I like matter A LOT!!!
Article:
Today, at the Impact Ohio conference, Jon Husted said something incredibly newsworthy that we haven?t seen reported anywhere.
Defending his performance managing Ohio?s election, Husted argued that because of the high stakes involved with being an electoral vote-rich swing state, Ohio?s elections chief is always scrutinized and criticized. (Funny, we don?t remember that happening in 2008, but that?s beside the point).
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.
This is huge and should raise giant red flags. Under the current winner-take-all system, Obama won all 18 of Ohio?s electoral votes. Under Husted?s plan, 12 of those 18 electoral votes would be handed to Mitt Romney, the popular vote loser.
The reason for this is Ohio?s incredibly gerrymandered Congressional districts have been drawn to pack Democrats together so they have the majority in only 4 of the state?s 16 congressional districts. In addition to winning those four ? assuming Husted would have us adopt the electoral vote allocation used by Maine and Nebraska, the only states to split their EVs by Congressional district ? Obama would have also gotten the two at-large electoral votes bringing the final tally to 6 for Obama and 12 for Romney.
Outrageous right? Explained as a fix for the (he says undeserved) national attention he?s received, Jon Husted just put a plan on the table that would have handed Mitt Romney the majority of Ohio?s electoral sway.
And we thought with the election behind us, Jon Husted?s bad ideas were too. We were wrong.
Updated: partial audio and transcript is now available thanks to Ohio Public Radio.
For Ohioans who are tired of hearing Republicans and Democrats argue over election rules, the state?s top elections official has a theoretical solution. Secretary of State Jon Husted says Ohio could apportion its Electoral College votes in the presidential race in a proportional way, giving even the loser a big chunk of votes. That?s the way only two other states do it, but Husted says at least it would dampen partisan conflict because Ohio would no longer be such a prize.
Husted: ?It will not be a winner-take-all state, and you would not have another elections controversy about Ohio because we would not matter as much anymore."
Re: Ohio SOS at it again...Husted wants electoral votes based on districts
Might not need to as Ohio's electoral college points have been declining in recent years due to a shrinking population.
I think I just read that the 21 they have now are only good up through the next election in 2016 anyway, before they get reviewed for accuracy and keeping up with the growth rate of the state.
It's possible a split might be a moot point.
Where do you read your news? We only have 18 now and all ec points have already been reallocated since the 2008 election. We went from 21 to 18. #shakingmyhead
We will have 18 in the next election.
I apologize. I got my figures mixed up in my head. I knew both the 21 (as your past EC number) and the 18 figure for now, and I mistyped the 21; it should have been 18. AKA brain fart.
In fact, we will have 18 until the next census, at least. That's how the allocation of representatives in Congress is decided, and thus the number of votes in the electoral college.
16 reps + 2 senators = 18 EC votes.
But yes, people leave Ohio. :-( Oh well.
my read shelf:
I will be surprised if this actually happens. If this were the case, it would make Ohio irrelevant in terms of the national picture (the gerrymandered districts are ridiculous and would make OH not competitive at all).
If Ohio isn't competitive, then candidates aren't visiting the state and aren't promising to take Ohio's issues to be front and center. I highly doubt even state Republicans would be crazy about this. Every 4 years, a nice little stimulus comes into Ohio's economy. It wouldn't if this plan passes.