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Undaunted by rejection of their first effort to hijack 2016, Pennsylvania Republicans soldier on with a new scheme for awarding unearned electoral votes to Republican candidates and weakening their state's influence on Federal elections.
So comes now Pileggi with Plan B. The district scheme is out; instead, electoral votes would be awarded proportionally, guaranteeing the loser would pick up some free tallies that he or she would not have received under the systems used by every other state. In 2012, loser Romney would have received 8 of the 20 electoral votes. Last year, that would not have made a difference. In 2016, in a closer race....who knows?
Last night, a Democratic state lawmaker, Rep. Mike Sturia, told the website Think Progress that Pileggi, his legislative allies and Gov. Corbett could all but click their heels and make this thing the law of the land in just four days:
They could have it out of the House in three days and it could go over to the Senate and they could have it out of there in three days and it could go to the governor’s office and he could sign it. . . . The Senate can suspend the rules and have it passed in less than 24 hours. [The House] has to have a 2/3s majority to suspend the rules so usually we can at least make them do the three days.
Call me a crazy optimist, but I'm betting in the end this won't happen. I sure hope it doesn't. For one thing, Pennsylvania has way too many problems -- falling bridges and failing schools come to mind -- to waste valable hours on this election-stealing nonsense. In the bigger picture -- and I doubt this could happen -- I would love to see an amendment to ensure that federal elections are governed by one federal set of rules. That's just common sense -- imagine the fan outcry if the NFL used a different rulebook for games played in Louisiana than it did for contests in Maryland. If pro football can do it, why can't America.
As Susie has noted, Pileggi is a corrupt, greedy state politician who wants desperately to lock in Pennsylvania as a Republican stronghold. Even though his current plan is a watered-down version of Plan A, it still has the potential to actually negate the popular vote for president in favor of one that unreasonably grants one side or the other unearned electoral votes.
Enough of this. Clearly they can't win on their ideas, but that doesn't mean they should steal the election either.
