i think these are patterns we ve seen a long time ago. when people say this is an effort to steal the election, an attempt by the republicans here, is what they mean. if the electoral votes were divvied bibi congressional district we d be reporting on mitt romney s first week in the white house tonight. here is a map from the 2012 presidential race of states, obama versus romney won. if the republican plan was put in place nationally this past year, you would have to replace that map with this one. all those districts in red are all electoral points for mitt romney. what does this mean? it means even though barack obama won by nearly five million votes and carried the electoral college by 332 to 206, if the republican plan was in place, he would have lost to romney 262 to 276. what do you think would happen? let me ask you. how active is the naacp, mr. shelton, in fighting this? are you in the courts in this? are you out in the legislatures? how hot are you getting on this thing? p
florida, earlier. and all 20 of pennsylvania s electoral votes. under t under that change presented, president obama s 52% of the vote would have won him a grand total of 12 votes. mitt romney s 47% of the popular vote would have won him 8 electoral votes. in 2012, president obama won 51% of the vote, mitt romney got 47% of the popular vote. the president won 332 electoral votes to mitt romney s 206. but if the one district, one electoral vote plan applied in all states, president obama would have won 262 electoral votes and mitt romney would have won 273. in the presidential election. now, the good news here is that a lot of republicans do not want to win this way. today, virginia governor bob mcdonald s communication director issued this statement, saying the government does not support this legislation, he believes virginia s existing
plans now being considered in virginia, michigan, ohio, pennsylvania and wisconsin. instead of obama winning 332-206, the electoral map would have gone from blue to red, romney over obama. 273-262, by one estimate. some leading republicans oppose the change. i m a traditionalist myself. i really am a conservative. i m a little bit skeptical of this. and tonight, virginia s governor bob mcdonald came out against it. potential candidates are warning the party has a bigger problem. we ve got to stop being a stupid party and it s time for a new republican party that talks like adults. they damaged the brand with offensive and bizarre comments. changing what the candidates say could be more important than changing how they count votes. the irony is that democrats have thought about changing the electoral college in the past when they came up on the losing side. craig? andrea mitchell, thanks for
virginia last year would have become a 9-4 romney triumph. this is part of a trend. republicans thanks to the wave elections of 2010 control governorships in a number of big blue states. now, with the gop s national chairman cheering them on, republicans in many of the states are talking more and more about pursuing similar rules changes. the effect could be massive. currently, two states, maine and nebraska, award electoral votes by congressional districts. only once in nebraska in 2008 resulted in the vote going to a candidate that didn t win the statewide popular vote but the math changes in bigger states where democratic voting populations are jammed in to a handful of districts in metropolitan areas and republican voters more widely dispersed across the state. apply the model to 50 states and mitt romney would have won the electoral vote 276 to 262 last november and lost the national
trying to move legislation that would make it so it s not winner take all in the electoral college. that it s proportional, so that if you have you win via the congressional district, which a lot of republicans are saying, well, it means local control, but take virginia, northern virginia would get the same vote as out near tennessee, which has much less population. what is the purpose behind this? look, it s all about giving the republicans a significant advantage in these battleground states that they ve lost in the past two presidential cycles. your example of virginia, president obama won the state by four percentage points, won it by 150,000 votes. but by allocating the electoral votes by congressional district, mitt romney would have won nine electoral votes in virginia to barack obama s four. if you take that entire system nationally, emory university pointed o out that mitt romney would have won 272 electoral votes to barack obama s 276 electoral votes to barack obama s 262