Virginia Moves to Change Electoral Vote Allocation

“Republicans in Virginia and a handful of other battleground states are pushing for far-reaching changes to the electoral college in an attempt to counter recent success by Democrats,” the Washington Post reports.

“In the vast majority of states, the presidential candidate who wins receives all of that state’s electoral votes. The proposed changes would instead apportion electoral votes by congressional district, a setup far more favorable to Republicans. Under such a system in Virginia, for instance, President Obama would have claimed four of the state’s 13 electoral votes in the 2012 election, rather than all of them.”

“No state is moving quicker than Virginia, where state senators are likely to vote on the plan as soon as next week. If successful, Virginia would become the third state to adopt the congressional district system, after Nebraska and Maine.”

Nate Cohn: “But the GOP’s effort in Virginia, if it’s passed, is more cynical than
effective: Virginia is not one of the states where Republicans can
pursue this kind of electoral policy and reap big gains.”