“This is a concept that’s got a lot of possibility and a lot of potential,” said Washington-based Republican strategist Phil Musser, acknowledging that the debate would “incite different levels of partisan acrimony.” Musser also predicted that more pressing economic issues would likely take priority in most Republican-led statehouses. And in at least seven states - Michigan, Ohio, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Florida and North Carolina - Republicans control both chambers of the state legislature and the governor’s office.Īlready, Maine and Nebraska have moved away from a winner-take-all system to one that allocates electoral votes based on congressional district. “This is nothing more than election-rigging,” said Michigan Democratic Chairman Mark Brewer.Įach state has the authority to shape its own election law. And they warned of political consequences for Republicans who back the shift - particularly those governors up for re-election in 2014, who include the governors of Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania, among others. “We never really pushed it before,” he said, adding that the bill wasn’t designed to help one party more than the other.ĭemocrats aren’t convinced. Peter Lund, a Republican who introduced a bill to change the allocation system two years ago, said some Republicans might be more receptive to his bill this year following the election. Republican leaders in the Michigan Statehouse have yet to decide whether to embrace the change there. “It could be done in a thoughtful over the next couple years and people can have a thoughtful discussion,” Snyder said. But he said it’s a reasonable issue to debate and that he prefers that leaders discuss it well before the next presidential election. Rick Snyder told The Associated Press on Tuesday that he “could go either way” on the change and doesn’t plan to push it. While some Republican officials warn of a political backlash, GOP lawmakers in Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania are already lining up behind proposals that would allocate electoral votes by congressional district or something similar.

However, if the changes are spread out more evenly across the states, the process could align the results of the electoral college closer to the popular vote. If it works out like the Democrats fear, it could mean a Republican winning the White House at the same time that a Democrat won the popular vote with significant numbers. The Democrats fear that only very close states that went blue would shift over to the new system while other states that are more reliably red, but still contain a significant number of Democratic votes - such as Arizona - would remain winner takes all. The core of the Democrats issue with the changes is not the move from electoral votes to a popular vote, but that the changes would be laid out unevenly.

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