Friday, November 11, 2011

PA's System for Electoral College Votes

Facts:
  1. In September 2011, Governor Tom Corbett and Senate Majority Leader Dominic Pileggi suggested a plan to change the way PA awards it electoral votes of the winner-takes-all system.
  2. The new system would include one electoral vote to be given to each state's Congressional district, and the winner of the popular vote would receive two more.
  3. I PA had gotten rid of the winner-take-all system in 2008, President Obama would have bare beaten John McCain in a 11-10 vote, instead of taking all 21 electoral votes.
  4. Democrats have won PA in the last five presidential elections, yet it still remains competitive. 
  5. Giving two electoral votes to the state winner won't motivate candidates to campaign, as they should, to win the votes.
  6. Changing the system would not create a significant improvement for society, and may even make matters worse for existing problems of the electoral college.
  7. Republicans worried that Democrats would spend more money for resources in swing congressional districts that were won by them because it's possible to change the state's political standing.
  8. The concept of awarding electoral votes by congressional district was introduced and followed by since the 1950s, when a republican senator and GOP Rep. wanted to fight the liberal push for direct popular election of President.
  9. A secretive, nonprofit group called All Votes Matter has been pushing the electoral vote scheme since May in PA.
  10. Between April and June, this group spent $77,700 to get support from legislation to actually implement this scheme.
Questions:
  1. How is the Electoral College "broken"?
  2. How could Congress improve the electoral college system on a national level?
  3. Does Pileggi think his plan is more beneficial or useless for PA and why?
  4. Would this plan change the political standing of several states or have no effect (if a state is democrat or republican)?
  5. How might elections affect the economy?

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