If Pennsylvania had passed the Maine/Nebraska plan

[Figueira]

More states should adopt electoral vote allocation by CD. Makes things interesting.

It is an awful idea. Since such a plan would be based on how CDs are drawn, it would literally allow Republicans to gerrymander the electoral college nearly as bad as the House.

And this plan at the time was not just confined to PA, either. The RNC was pushing it in many battleground states they controlled as they wanted to leverage their success in 2010 to rig presidential elections as well, since they often can't seem to win them the normal way.

Why did you say "republicans?" Both parties gerrymander from california and maryland to north carolina and florida (before the court ordered redistricting). Calling people out ISN'T and SHOULDN'T be restricted to party. Both parties use the system.

Gerrymandering is a net benefit to Republicans, and will continue to be as long as they control as many state legislatures as they do.

[The Arizonan]

What if Pennsylvania rewarded electoral votes based on the percentage of the popular vote? For example, if Hillary Clinton won the state with sixty percent of the vote, she would get two for winning the state and sixty percent of the rest of the electoral votes.

[Virginiá]

Why did you say "republicans?" Both parties gerrymander from california and maryland to north carolina and florida (before the court ordered redistricting). Calling people out ISN'T and SHOULDN'T be restricted to party. Both parties use the system.

California has a commission that is at least something, and could use improvements. If you're going to even compare that state's maps to places like NC, then I'd like to see some analysis on that first. Florida's maps were redrawn in late 2015 (state senate/Congressional, State House wasn't challenged). Each party could probably always find an issue/bias with maps drawn by almost any commission/system we can come up with, but the point is to try and keep it as balanced and fair as possible. Maps from states like Maryland, North Carolina and Pennsylvania are abominations and the whole practice needs to stop.

Sure, both parties do it, but it doesn't make it any better. Trying to justify Republicans right now though is one hell of a stretch considering just how many state legislatures they control and how many maps they diced up in 2011-2012. It's not even close. So yes, I am going to continue to absolutely lambast your party over this until it's fixed. If Democrats go buck wild like this in the future, I will do the same to them.

And it's for this reason that awarding electoral votes by Congressional districts is an awful idea. It would spread the disease of gerrymandering to presidential elections. As if things were not bad enough already.

[angus]

What if Pennsylvania rewarded electoral votes based on the percentage of the popular vote? For example, if Hillary Clinton won the state with sixty percent of the vote, she would get two for winning the state and sixty percent of the rest of the electoral votes.

I support that plan.  Ultimately, it remains the right of each state to delegate its votes, but I think that it's a good idea, and not just for Pennsylvania.  It maintains the Founders' idea that state legislatures should, collectively, decide the president, but it also gives us a finer-grained, more democratic process by which the states choose the president.  It would not have changed the outcome in most elections, but it might have given alternate parties and their candidates more press.

To be sure, if we value democracy above all else then we should move to amend the constitution to require the popular vote winner to become the president.  If we feel that democracy is over-rated, or are originalists, then we should just accept the legality and legitimacy of the status quo.  I think I fall somewhere in between those extremes; I really like your idea.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

The Pennsylvania plan would've certainly been struck down by courts because it allotted the two at-large EVs based on who won the majority of the districts, not the statewide vote.

[Nyvin]

More states should adopt electoral vote allocation by CD. Makes things interesting.

It is an awful idea. Since such a plan would be based on how CDs are drawn, it would literally allow Republicans to gerrymander the electoral college nearly as bad as the House.

And this plan at the time was not just confined to PA, either. The RNC was pushing it in many battleground states they controlled as they wanted to leverage their success in 2010 to rig presidential elections as well, since they often can't seem to win them the normal way.

Why did you say "republicans?" Both parties gerrymander from california and maryland to north carolina and florida (before the court ordered redistricting). Calling people out ISN'T and SHOULDN'T be restricted to party. Both parties use the system.

Maryland you have a point, but California uses an independent commission.   I know that isn't perfect, but it's still a massive improvement from states that just give the legislators a free for all.

[Kevinstat]

The Pennsylvania plan would've certainly been struck down by courts because it allotted the two at-large EVs based on who won the majority of the districts, not the statewide vote.

Yeah, violating the "non-equal population" part of Gray v. Sanders, right?  (Congressional districts within a state have approximately equal population as of the last census unlike Georgia's counties divided by their unit vote under their system, but you'd still be electing a pair of individual electors under a unit system, an "electoral college" to elect those two electors.)