Following up on her Tuesday segment, MSNBC host Rachel Maddow explained how Virginia Republicans planned to set up the presidential election system in favor of the GOP.

“We have been documenting over the last few days what appears to be a coordinated effort by Republicans in a number of key states to change the rules for electing a president,” she said. “To change the rules so essentially Democrats running for president cannot win.”

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Republican lawmakers in the state are advancing legislation to replace the current winner-takes-all system with one that allocates electoral college votes based on the winner of each congressional district. The bill would ensure Republican presidents pick up electoral college votes from rural, conservative districts. Combined with the latest gerrymandered electoral maps that were pushed through the state Senate, the proposed changes would virtually guarantee that Republican presidents obtain a majority of electoral votes from the state, even if they receive less votes.

“If the system Virginia Republicans are pushing now had been in place in 2012, Barack Obama still would have received 150,000 more votes than Mitt Romney in Virginia, but the electoral college vote in Virginia would have been 4 votes for Barack Obama and 9 votes for Mitt Romney,” Maddow explained. “I wonder why they want to make that change?”

“The action today in Virginia is the first of its kind in the nation,” she continued. “What we have been covering is Republicans making noises about doing this across the country wherever they can. We’ve been covering Democrats bracing for the prospect of moves like this all across the country, not just in Virginia, but in Wisconsin and Michigan and Ohio and Pennsylvania. And in Pennsylvania, the Republicans have a bill in committee. But Virginia is the first state to actually get on with it and start moving it forward. This is a big story, and it is gathering steam.”

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