GOP's electoral vote scheme likely illegal in Virginia

[LongTomH]

Source: MSNBC

A scheme under consideration in Virginia to rig the Electoral College in Republicans’ favor could well violate a key provision of the Voting Rights Act, experts on the law say. But that very provision is itself under challenge by the GOP, and could be struck down by the Supreme Court later this year.

A Republican bill that would allocate Virginia’s electoral votes based on the popular vote in each congressional district cleared its first hurdle in the state legislature Wednesday. Had the bill been in effect in the last election, Mitt Romney would have won 9 of Virginia’s 13 electoral votes, despite losing the popular vote in the state to President Obama by nearly 5 percentage points.

Republicans have raised versions of the idea in several other blue states where they currently have state-level control, including Wisconsin, Ohio, Michigan, and Pennsylvania. If all four states approved the plan, future GOP presidential candidates would get a major—and anti-democratic—leg up.

But in Virginia, where the plan has advanced the furthest, several voting-rights experts told MSNBC.com it could be on shaky legal ground. Section 5 of the 1965 Voting Rights Act requires certain states, including Virginia, to clear any voting changes with the U.S. Justice Department. If the Feds find that the change would have a “retrogressive effect” on minority voters, they can block it.

Read more: http://tv.msnbc.com/2013/01/25/gops-electoral-vote-scheme-likely-illegal-in-virginia/

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The discussion on this gets complicated. One of the problems is, that the Voting Rights Act Section 5 could only be applied in Virginia; elsewhere it will be a state by state fight.

Also, Section 5 is under attack in the US Supreme Court.

[sinkingfeeling]

1. I would like to see the scheme of giving urban voters only 3/5 of a vote, illegal everywhere.

[Drale]

2. Yes, I mentioned that in my thread earlier

This gives the area with 100,000 the same 1 vote that the Urban area with 3,000,000 people taking away the representation of Urban areas.

[Jim Lane]

9. No, it wouldn't work that way.

You write, "This gives the area with 100,000 the same 1 vote that the Urban area with 3,000,000 people...." That's inaccurate, unless you can show me that Virginia Republicans somehow got away with a 30-to-1 discrepancy in the population of Congressional Districts.

The plan would give one electoral vote to each Congressional District, not to each county or each 1,000 square miles or something like that. Congressional Districts are roughly equal in population.

Instead, the issue is the packing of many Democratic voters into a small number of districts, partly from natural population patterns (urban dwellers tend to be Democrats) and partly from deliberate gerrymandering. That's how the district-by-district total comes to depart so greatly from the overall popular vote.

[Drale]

3. When they wrote the Voting Rights act,

they should have just made it so any state making changes to its voting system have to go through the Federal government first and since they didn't do it then, Democrat's need to add an amendment to the bill to do it now.

[cyclezealot]

6. Sounds good.

The only problem, the Roberts Court might well soon strike down the 1965 civil rights law , thanks to a law suit being filed by Texas.

[OKNancy]

4. moot point

It looks like it won't pass: http://www.democraticunderground.com/1014380686

[BumRushDaShow]

5. The State Senator who had missed the vote noted in an interview yesterday

that the change also violated the state Constitution, which also says that they can only redraw lines once every 10 years with the census and congressional re-drawing (which had already been done for the 2010 census).

[LiberalFighter]

7. Republicans don't bother observing the law when they don't like it though. nt

[Cha]

8. A-ha! Thanks LongTomH