COLUMBUS, Ohio -- Count Ohio's Republican leaders out of

to end the Electoral College's winner-take-all format in the Buckeye State and other presidential battlegrounds.

Spokesmen for Gov. John Kasich, State Senate President Keith Faber and House Speaker William G. Batchelder told The Plain Dealer this week that they are not pursuing plans to award electoral votes proportionally by congressional district.

Batchelder went a step further, saying through his communications director that he "is not supportive of such a move." And Republican Secretary of State

, the state's chief elections administrator, emphasized that he does not favor the plan either, despite Democratic suspicions based on reported comments that he said were taken out of context.

"Nobody in Ohio is advocating this," Husted said in a telephone interview.

Ohio, like all but two other states, awards all of its electoral votes to the presidential candidate who wins its popular vote. President Barack Obama, a Democrat, won here in 2008 and 2012. Obama beat Republican challenger Mitt Romney by more than 166,000 votes in Ohio last November. But had the proposal that has been floated in recent weeks been in place then, Romney easily would have won a majority of the state's 18 electoral votes -- perhaps as many as 12.

That's because in Ohio, a dozen of the state's 16 congressional districts were drawn to favor Republicans. The GOP handily won all 12 of those seats last year. Democrats won their four seats by even larger margins. While voters don't always vote straight-ticket Democrat or Republican, Republicans have a clear advantage under these boundaries.

Proponents of proportional allocation focus on states such as Florida, Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Virginia and Wisconsin. All are key electoral prizes that Obama won twice. And all are controlled by Republican governors and legislatures. If all six had awarded their electoral votes proportionally by congressional district last year, Romney would have won exactly the 270 needed to clinch the White House, according to

.

Ken Blackwell, Ohio's former secretary of state, is one of the GOP activists promoting the need for electoral changes. He said in a telephone interview that the winner-take-all system allows candidates to emphasize issues relevant in toss-up states while ignoring the concerns of voters in smaller states or those that are solidly Democratic or Republican.

"There are 40 states that say, 'What are we? Just chopped liver?'" Blackwell said.

Democrats see a nefarious plan to improve the GOP's national fortunes. They also see a fund-raising opportunity.

"You know how they gerrymandered the congressional maps in Ohio and across the country? It allowed them to seize the majority in the U.S. House, even though Democrats won the popular vote,"

, a Democrat from Cleveland, wrote Monday in an email blast seeking donations to the Ohio Democratic Party's Election Watch Fund. "Now, they want to do the same thing to the presidency by tying the Electoral College votes to their rigged congressional maps."

The push for proportional allocation seemed poised for its first test this month in Virginia, where a Republican state senator introduced legislation to award electoral votes by congressional district. But other key Republicans, including Gov. Bob McDonnell came out against the bill, which died in committee Tuesday,

.

National media reports chronicling the Virginia debate have pinpointed Ohio as one of several other states where GOP leaders are considering such changes. Turner, in her fund-raising email, noted Blackwell's involvement and asserted that Husted is "on record" supporting the move to proportional allocation. Husted said his words have been misinterpreted.

The confusion stems from remarks the secretary of state made last November at Impact Ohio, a post-election conference sponsored by the state Democratic and Republican parties. Husted, according to reports, suggested that proportional allocation would end the hyperpartisan scrutiny over Buckeye State elections.

"It would not be a winner-take-all state, and you would not have another elections controversy about Ohio because we wouldn't matter as much anymore," Husted said, according to an audio recording

.

Democrats quickly pounced. But Husted told The Plain Dealer this week that he was speaking hypothetically.

"I was asked about how to make elections less controversial," Husted said. "In answering that question, I said as long as there is so much at stake in Ohio, as long as we are most important, you're never going to be able to avoid controversy. If you wanted to avoid controversy you could fix redistricting so that all congressional districts were drawn fairly and apportion electoral votes based on those congressional districts -- make it so Ohio is not a winner-take-all state."

Husted emphasized that he is not championing the idea.

"There has been an orchestrated effort to mischaracterize what I said at that conference," Husted added. "There are people who for the purposes of their own agenda -- their fund-raising agenda -- are trying to take this out of context."

Blackwell does not believe redistricting reform is necessary. He said he has not yet lobbied Ohio leaders to change how the state allocates electoral votes.

Republicans are expected to tackle elections issues, including redistricting, this year.

"To my knowledge, no one in the House Republican caucus is introducing a bill on awarding electoral votes in Ohio by congressional district," Michael Dittoe, the communications director for House Speaker Batchelder, said in an email. "As I have told others recently, the majority caucus is looking at the possibility of some election law reforms, but changing the electoral votes to split along congressional lines is not something that has ever been part of that discussion."

Data analysis editor Rich Exner contributed to this story.