Republicans in Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Virginia have proposed awarding their states’ electoral votes by congressional district, eschewing the winner-take-all system used by most of the country. While that could give the GOP a huge advantage in presidential elections, “rigging the system” in states where Republicans control the legislatures could also accelerate efforts to have the popular vote replace the electoral system for picking a president, according to NBC’s First Read team. Republicans say their move would give smaller, rural communities more importance in presidential battleground states. But First Read notes it would also hurt Democrats in places where redistricting has concentrated the Democratic vote to a handful of districts. Under a proposed plan for Virginia, Mitt Romney would have secured nine electoral votes to Obama’s four even though the president won the popular vote, NBC Washington reported.
