Manipulation of state’s electoral votes a blatant ploy Commentary Daylin Leach

IN THE United States, we don’t elect presidents directly. Each state elects representatives to the Electoral College, which technically “elects” our president. For 224 years, Pennsylvania has joined virtually every other state in casting all its electoral votes for the candidate who won the state’s popular vote. This always has made Pennsylvania a critical state in national elections because of the number of electoral votes it delivers.

On Sept. 12, Gov. Tom Corbett endorsed changing our system and instead awarding one electoral vote to a candidate for each congressional district he or she wins. This is a transparent, blatantly partisan change in the rules, designed for one purpose only – to help Republican presidential candidates.

Republican leaders are distressed that their candidates have lost Pennsylvania in the past five elections, and they wish to correct this problem, not by fielding better candidates or making more compelling arguments, but by stacking the deck to ensure their nominees receive Pennsylvania’s electoral votes, regardless of how the people of our state actually vote.

We should be extremely suspicious anytime one political party unilaterally tries to directly affect the outcome of future elections. Republicans in Harrisburg want to award electoral votes according to congressional districts. Who is drawing those districts? Harrisburg Republicans!

They control the redistricting process completely. So they will essentially be deciding just how many votes to guarantee future Republican presidential candidates. In fact, the congressional redistricting now occurring is likely to create 12 solidly Republican districts and six Democratic ones. This assures any Republican presidential candidate a clear majority of the state’s electoral votes. This means that your vote in the presidential election might be meaningless.

This plan also will end Pennsylvania’s status as a battleground state and will make it irrelevant to presidential campaigns. Why should candidates come here when we will know in advance what the final electoral vote count will be? It is extremely strange and distressing that our governor is pushing a plan that would make Pennsylvania matter less in national politics.

Notice that Republicans who control states in which Republican presidential candidates usually win show absolutely no interest in changing their rules. We won’t be seeing this proposal moving in Texas or Mississippi.

Any change to our Electoral College should be adopted uniformly across the nation.

If Gov. Corbett was interested in improving Pennsylvania’s electoral structure, he would support proposals such as early voting, no-excuse absentee voting or a national popular vote. He opposes all of these.

Instead, the governor supports this bill, as well as legislation that will make it harder for people who disproportionately do not vote Republican to vote at all, such as requiring photo ID every time someone goes to the polls.

As the prime sponsor of redistricting reform, I find it particularly disheartening that this proposal will make gerrymandering an even more entrenched part of the system. This is extremely disappointing coming from a governor who ran on a promise to reform our political system.

Elections in a democracy are sacred. Permanently changing the rules that were created by our Founders, and which we’ve all lived by for centuries, in order to benefit your political party is profoundly wrong.

The governor’s endorsement brings to mind the famous words of Joseph Welch, spoken to U.S. Sen. Joe McCarthy during another attack on the basic structure of our democracy: “Have you no sense of decency?”

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