With the GOP already taking the heat for their attempt to mid-census redistrict in order to flip one of Virginia’s congressional districts from red to blue, they have now lost their one chance at it ever happening as Governor Bob “Ultrasound” McDonnell has come down against the plan, saying simply:

Virginia’s existing system works just fine as it is

As for the plan to rig the next presidential election in other states such as Michigan, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Ohio and Florida, already the state parties are feeling the heat from a deservedly outraged electorate. In Florida, the State House Speaker, Will Witherford, went on the record against the attempt to rig the presidential election, saying to the Miami Herald:

“To me, that’s like saying in a football game, ‘We should have only three quarters, because we were winning after three quarters and they beat us in the fourth. I don’t think we need to change the rules of the game, I think we need to get better.”





Further in Florida, Don Gaetz, President of the Florida Senate, expanded on this thought further, coming out against the electoral college itself:

I think we should abolish the Electoral College but nobody in Washington has called to ask for my opinion. If James Madison had asked me, and I had been there, I would have said a popular vote is a better way to do it. The farmer standing in his field in North Dakota should be just as important as the factory worker in Ohio.

It is an odd day when a leader of the Florida Republicans stands on the same side as Al Gore. However, these two leaders in Florida, as well as the leadership in Virginia, are in a unique position to reveal the truth of their conviction.

The National Popular Vote Interstate Compact (NPVIC) is a proposal which has passed several states which would exploit the Electoral College in order to eliminate it. Without a constitutional amendment, not likely to pass through the split congress, the NPVIC gives the same result, turning America into a popular-vote election. How it is designed is simple, states which have signed the agreement put down that the states in the compact, once the total electoral votes of those states meets or surpasses the 270 needed to elect the president, would tie their electoral votes to the popular vote. As of right now, the NPVIC has 132 pledged electoral votes, roughly half of the total needed for it to go into effect. If Florida were to pass the measure, it would increase that total to 161, less than 100 from the end goal. If New York and Pennsylvania pass the measure, already in progress in their state legislatures, the grand total would be 210, only 60 from their goal.

If the GOP wants to demonstrate that they are for the people, and not for private interests, in the states of Ohio, Wisconsin, Michigan and Virginia, they should pass the same measure, which would bring the NPVIC to 267, only three from their goal. A simple passage among any other state would then put the measure over the top, eliminating the Electoral College, and bringing what State Senator Gaetz claims he is for. He has the power to put legislature to his claimed convictions. If he, and the other state legislators across the country who claim to desire election reform, stand for the people, they should put their votes where their mouths are.



Nathaniel Downes is the son of a former state representative of New Hampshire, now living in Seattle Washington.

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