Electoral changes opposed

BILL O ’ BOYLE

boboyle@timesleader.com

State Rep. Gerald Mullery says the proposal to change the way Pennsylvania’s electoral votes are counted is “an attempted power grab” by state Republican leadership.

“The people of the commonwealth are not na�ve,” Mullery said. “They see this for exactly what it is.”

According to a poll released Wednesday by Quinnipiac University, on the question of changing the way Pennsylvania awards electoral votes, 52 percent to 40 percent said they prefer the winner-take-all system over a proposal by state Sen. Dominic Pileggi, R-Chester, to award electoral votes by congressional district. Gov. Tom Corbett supports Pileggi’s plan.

Fifty-seven percent of those polled say Republicans in the state Legislature want to switch to a district-by-district count to help Republican presidential candidates, rather than to better reflect the will of the voters, the independent poll finds.

And, the poll shows that 51 percent of voters say that the switch will diminish Pennsylvania’s importance as a key presidential swing state.

“Pennsylvania voters say stick to the winner-take-all formula used in most states: Whoever gets the most popular votes, wins all of the state’s Electoral College votes,” said Tim Malloy, assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute.

Malloy said the survey comes down along party lines. He said Pennsylvania hasn’t voted for a Republican presidential candidate since 1988 and that Republicans see an advantage in having electoral votes divided between candidates based on the individual congressional districts they win.

“Pennsylvania voters think abandoning the traditional Electoral College formula would reduce the state’s swing state clout,” Malloy said in the Quinnipiac release.

Pileggi says the change would more accurately reflect voters’ wishes and be fairer. But even Republicans in the poll were divided on the idea, while Democrats and independent voters favor the current system. Under Pileggi’s plan, candidates would garner an electoral vote for each of the state’s 18 congressional districts that they carry in next year’s election and the other two electoral votes would go to the winner of the statewide balloting.

State Rep. Mike Carroll, D-Avoca, said he will vehemently oppose any effort to distribute the state’s electoral votes by congressional districts. State Rep. Eddie Day Pashinski, D-Wilkes-Barre, said he agrees with the poll results. State Rep. Tarah Toohil, R-Butler Township, said she welcomes opinions and ideas of her constituents before she decides how she will vote.

State Rep. Phyllis Mundy, D-Kingston, said Pileggi’s proposal is a blatant attempt to give the Republican presidential candidate an advantage and it will diminish Pennsylvania’s importance as a key state in the presidential election.

“I don’t know how you could interpret this proposed change in any other way,” she said.

Another area Democrat, state Sen. John Yudichak of Plymouth Township, said the Legislature should be working on the immediate and pressing needs of Pennsylvanians, such as flood recovery, putting people back to work and encouraging more Pennsylvanians to participate in their government through fair and open elections.

“While this is not the time for this debate, we should never let the desire for partisan advantage diminish an individual’s right to vote,” he said.

Bill O’Boyle, a Times Leader staff writer, may be reached at 829-7218.