Ohio Secretary Of State Husted Backs Off Electoral College Rigging Scheme

[Tx4obama]

Ohio Secretary Of State Husted Backs Off Electoral College Rigging Scheme

Two days after the election, Husted said if the state wanted to avoid controversies like the ones he caused, it could change its laws to drop its winner-take-all status in presidential elections. Gov. Tom Corbett (R) and other Republicans in Pennsylvania had unsuccessfully proposed a similar scheme in 2011 to allocate electors based on who wins each gerrymandered Congressional district — and also found with significant opposition. Now, Husted is distancing himself from his own proposal.

In an interview with the Cincinnati Inquirer, Husted claimed his original remarks were “badly taken out of context” and that he does not intend to push such a change:

“My response was that as long as Ohio was a winner-take-all state and maybe the most important swing state in the country, there is no election system that won’t be controversial,” Husted said Wednesday. “I said if the sole goal was to make Ohio elections less controversial, you could fix redistricting so that districts are drawn fairly and more competitive, and then apportion our electoral votes according to congressional districts. That was just a comment, not a proposal.”

Husted added, “I’ve got enough on my plate that needs to be done. … This isn’t one of those things.” Just two small states — Maine and Nebraska — allocate their electors based on Congressional districts.

-snip-

Full article here: http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2012/11/26/1234321/ohio-secretary-of-state-husted-backs-off-electoral-college-rigging-scheme/

[Third Doctor]

1. Husted should

be removed from office. The only reason that he still has a job is because Ohio's governor is a Repug. I wish there were some federal charges that can be levied against this guy.

[Angry Dragon]

2. Husted belongs in prison

[still_one]

3. Do not turn your back on him

[yellowcanine]

4. Republicans know that if Ohio awarded EVs by congressional district it might cost a

Republican presidential candidate the election. Dumb shit Husted didn't think that one through very well.

[BlueStreak]

5. There is a fair way to do this.

Simply pro-rate the electors based on the share of popular vote in the entire state.

If every state did this, we would have a much more sensible electoral system. There would no longer be an incentive to spend all the resources in one state. Every state could potentially be a swing state.

But Ohio would never do this on their own because if Ohio did it while Texas, Florida, New York, and California did not, then Ohio would become mostly irrelevant.

Husted's plan was just more election fraud, typing the electoral college vote to the Gerrymandering the state was able to accomplish.

[ShadowLiberal]

8. CA has 4x the people per EV ratio of WY

EV's aren't distributed proportionally, so no, pro-rating the electors wouldn't work either at preventing another Bush Vs Gore. Also, what about closely divided states with an even number of EV's? States like NH would pretty much always split their EV's 2 and 2, so no point campaigning there under such a system.

Only abolishing the electoral college can be an improvement that will make things fairer and prevent another Bush Vs Gore.

[BlueStreak]

9. So, don't give the states 2 extra electors

Yes, Montana will be a little over-represented, but it will never affect the outcome.

I don't see how anybody would watch all the fraud that happened in Ohio, Florida, and Arizona and still serious suggest we elect based on the national popular vote. That would be insane. The only way that could be done safely is if the elections were under control of a federal agency. And they are not.

I cannot accept any situation where Husted is in a position to throw an extra 40,000 votes into the pot at the last minute to swing a close election.

Please, think this through. The EC system isn't perfect, but it is a hell of a lot safer than letting Rove run completely unabated.

[LisaL]

6. And such a beautiful scheme it was.

[Hutzpa]

7. Hopefully Nina Turner will oust him

if she do decides to run for Sec State.