Right now, Republicans in Wisconsin, Virginia, Pennsylvania, Michigan, and perhaps more, are in talks that would change the way electoral college votes are allocated. Currently, these are winner take all states and always battleground states.
What is the problem with this? Why should Democrats be upset over having to fight over each congressional district for president? This is why. Republicans hold majorities in the state legislatures in all these states and they have used their power to change the congressional districts. By doing this, they ensure that a majority of their House delegation will be Republican, no matter how many more people in the state actually vote Democratic. Democrats won more votes than Republicans did in House races in 2012. This has happened in many states and is the reason why the President was re-elected by roughly 5,000,000 votes, the Democratic majority was maintained in the Senate while the House stays Republican.
Nebraska and Maine are the only states that allocate their electoral college votes based on each congressional district. The difference between what these states already do and the states currently thinking abut the change is that Maine and Nebraska most often have all their electoral go to the same candidate. 2008 being the only exception when Nebraska's 2nd congressional district, where Omaha sits, sent their electoral vote to Barack Obama. Nebraska is largely a red state.
This plan is not only at the state level. I know this because the Chairman of the Republican Party, Reince Priebus, has endorsed the idea. He thinks this is a good thing for Republicans to do.
This is not the first time Republicans have tried to cheat to win an election. The Voter ID laws that were passed throughout the country prior to the last election are a good example.
Attorney General Eric Holder referred to these laws as "poll taxes" and he is exactly right. Any law that forces a person to pay anything prior to voting has to be defined as a poll tax. Driver's licenses cost money and if you are poor and take the bus, this is an expense you may not want to incur. That shouldn't mean that you cannot vote. Minorities are more likely to be poor than whites and so they are disproportionately affected by these laws than whites. If you were poor and one party demonizes you constantly to appeal to their base, wouldn't you be more likely to vote for the other party? Maybe that's why Republicans like this idea.
It influences college students because many of these states will not accept a student ID to vote as part of these laws. A student ought to have the right to vote in the state they are living in because for the time they are attending that school, the representatives of that area essentially represent them too. Why would Republicans want to limit the amount of young people voting? Maybe because they voted in record numbers in 2008, and they tend to vote Democratic.
The 24th Amendment says that poll taxes are illegal. And yet, they still try to pass these laws.
As the country continues to change and feelings on many issues evolve, the far right feels more afraid. They are afraid that "the America they grew up in" is gone, and they are right. The thing that they don't realize, is that this is a good thing. We have more diversity in more places than ever. We are passing marriage equality measures in several states with many more on the way. The examples are endless. One song keeps play around and around in my head while I write these words.
Exactly.
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