The Democratic Governors Association, like many Democratic groups these days, is seizing on the plan among some Pennsylvania Republicans to end the state’s winner-take-all electoral vote system.
The plan is part of a larger trend Democrats see among Republicans to rejigger the electoral vote structure across the country and make it harder for President Obama to pick up the electors he did the last time around, even if he wins the same states.
The DGA, like many Democratic groups, is using the trend to raise some cash. But today the group also proved how hard it is to fire somebody up over electoral vote math.
Even if Obama does win Pennsylvania next year, the state will net him one less electoral vote than it did in 2008. Thanks to the Census, Pennsylvania now has 20 electoral votes rather than the 21 it did when John McCain and Obama battled it out for the Keystone State. (Overall, the Census results mean Obama would win six fewer electoral votes in 2012 than he did in 2008 if he wins all the same states.)
This is all kind of complicated, and it’s an uphill climb to grab voters’ attention with it — it’s also easy to see how someone could mess it up. And that’s exactly what the DGA did in their fundraising email sent out this morning. While hyping up all the doom and gloom scenarios Democrats — and some Republicans — see in the Pennsylvania scheme, the DGA messed up on the actual number of electoral votes in play.
From the text of the email (emphasis added):
Newly-empowered Republicans in Pennsylvania are trying to award the state’s electoral votes by congressional districts instead of by popular vote, meaning that President Obama could win this key swing state next year but still receive less than the full 21 electoral votes. It’s a power play of diabolic proportions, and it might just be crazy enough to succeed – if we don’t stop it right now.
Fail.
DGA’s Mark Giangreco responds:
We made a typo in our email to supporters, but the point holds: Republican governors and legislatures are more focused on enacting partisan retribution than doing the people’s business–whether it’s passing restrictive vote suppression laws, gerrymandering Democrats out of congressional districts, or cooking up new schemes to steal electoral votes. And it is certainly no accident that these historic overreaches are occurring in swing states like Pennsylvania, Ohio, Florida, and Wisconsin. The DGA is committed to holding these governors accountable and exposing their efforts to disenfranchise voters.
