This is a huge deal. North Carolina is changing the way that it allocates its electors in the electoral college.
So why does this matter? Because instead of the GOP almost certainly getting 15 electors, it will only get 9, with the other 6 going to the Dem, working off the congressional delegation allocation.
The Dems could probably do this in Arkansas and Louisiana too. Those are states that still have Southern Democrat majorities in the state legislatures and Democratic Governors.
Very, very clever.
10 Comments
sampo · July 27, 2007 at 5:03 PM
doesn’t/shouldn’t this require a change to the state constitution?
eye · July 27, 2007 at 5:18 PM
why?
sampo · July 27, 2007 at 5:26 PM
*shrugs*
you got me there.
I just thought i remembered reading or hearing something about that in the past. I’m just pretty shocked that the system we have in place now can be changed on a whim.
eye · July 27, 2007 at 5:34 PM
that’s not something to be shocked about… 🙂
sampo · July 27, 2007 at 5:45 PM
Here it is. I guess it’s a state-to-state thing, but Colorado at least had enough sense to let the people decide.
http://media.www.californiaaggie.com/media/storage/paper981/news/2004/11/04/FrontPage/Colorado.Electoral.College.Reform.Fails-1318677.shtml
race42008.com » Blog Archive » A Red State No More · July 28, 2007 at 3:01 PM
[…] Think Republicans can cobble together an electoral majority by holding all of the red states in 2008 while ceding all of the blues to Democrats? Think again: This is a huge deal. North Carolina is changing the way that it allocates its electors in the electoral college. […]
Sen. Schumer’s Preemptive War » ComMITTed to Romney! · July 29, 2007 at 1:52 AM
[…] Just another reminder that the Democrats are playing to win in the Senate. In a similar vein, Democrats in N. Carolina are about to change the state’s election law so that Democrats should pick up an additional 6 electoral votes (HT race42008). […]
Presidential Election 2008 News And Results » Blog Archive » Sen. Schumer’s Preemptive War · July 29, 2007 at 1:19 PM
[…] Just another reminder that the Democrats are playing to win in the Senate. In a similar vein, Democrats in N. Carolina are about to change the state’s election law so that Democrats should pick up an additional 6 electoral votes (HT race42008). […]
eyeon08.com » California splitting electoral votes too? · August 1, 2007 at 7:57 AM
[…] Simply put, this would transfer 20 electors to the GOP candidate. (19 GOP congressmen, but Bush won 22 districts in 2004) What a clever idea. This is a brilliant rebuttal to the strategy that the Dems are using in North Carolina. MyDD gives a rundown of the political consequences: The difference here is that the California proposal is not going through the legislature as the North Carolina measure did, rather it has been filed for one of CA’s 2008 ballots (if it gets enough signatures) for approval by voters. Democrats control both houses of the legislature in California, so, as with so many issues, Republicans have no choice but to bypass the legislative process and go directly to the voters via a ballot measure system that is deeply flawed. The good news is that in recent years the public’s default position on ballot measures has been "No;" the bad news is that if the measure does make the ballot, Democrats would be forced to spend millions of dollars to defeat it. […]
eyeon08.com » Don’t stop electoral college reform in California! · August 7, 2007 at 5:23 PM
[…] Don’t stop electoral college reform in California! digg_url = ‘http://www.eyeon08.com/2007/08/07/dont-stop-electoral-college-reform-in-california/’; digg_title = ‘Don’t stop electoral college reform in California!’; digg_bodytext = ‘Redstate’s Erick Erickson noted yesterday that the electoral college reform in North Carolina stopped because because Howard Dean realized it would give them no feet to stand on in California: The measure raced through the North Carolina State Senate, the State House was preparing to pass it and the Governor was prepared to sign it, until […]’; digg_skin = “compact”; digg_topic = “politics”; ( function() { var ds=typeof digg_skin==’string’?digg_skin:”; var h=80; var w=52; if(ds==’compact’) { h=18; w=120; } var u=typeof digg_url==’string’?digg_url:(typeof DIGG_URL==’string’?DIGG_URL:window.location.href); document.write(“”); } )() Redstate’s Erick Erickson noted yesterday that the electoral college reform in North Carolina stopped because because Howard Dean realized it would give them no feet to stand on in California: The measure raced through the North Carolina State Senate, the State House was preparing to pass it and the Governor was prepared to sign it, until Howard Dean intervened. […]
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