Thursday, January 26, 2017

Republicans in Minn., Va. want electoral vote by district; would've reflected Trump's rural support

Republicans in Minnesota and Virginia want to split "up their electoral votes by congressional districts instead of awarding them statewide," David Weigel reports for The Washington Post. That would have reflected the rural support Trump had in both states.

"In Minnesota, Speaker of the House Kurt Daudt has introduced a bill that would assign one electoral vote to each of the state's districts, and two to the winner of the statewide popular vote," Weigel writes. "In Virginia, Rep. Mark Cole (R-Fredericksburg) has introduced identical legislation, and passed it through the Elections Subcommittee on a party-line vote." Nebraska and Maine are the only states that allocated their votes this way.

"If active in 2016, the bills would have handed a total of 11 electoral votes from Hillary Clinton to Trump, in states won by Clinton," Weigel writes. "Trump won six of Virginia's 11 districts, and five of Minnesota's eight districts. In Minnesota, that would have meant a 5-5 electoral vote tie for Trump despite a statewide loss; nationwide, it would have bumped his electoral vote total to 317."

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