[EM] Making a Bad Thing Worse

[Jonathan Lundell]

On Oct 17, 2008, at 7:11 PM, Kathy Dopp wrote:

> Date: Sat, 18 Oct 2008 02:17:14 +0100
>> From: "Raph Frank" <raphfrk at gmail.com>
>> Subject: Re: [EM] Making a Bad Thing Worse
>> The Electoral College should meet and then make its decision.
>>
>> This is compounded by the fact that all states have switched to  
>> winner
>> takes all methods of selecting the electors, so it is double broken.
>>
>
> That is not quite true. There are two states, Maine and one other (I
> forget which) that proportionally split their electoral votes.
> Recently there was an effort by Republicans to have CA split its
> electoral votes proportionally - but Dems fought it because it would
> have virtually guaranteed that Republicans win the Presidential
> contest.

That is not quite true. Maine and Nebraska assign their electoral  
votes by the winner in each congressional district, and the two extra  
votes by the statewide vote. In practice, neither state has ever split  
their electoral vote (though Obama may have a shot at the district  
containing Omaha this year).