Pa. Senator Proposes Eliminating State's 'Winner Take All' Electoral College System
By Tony Romeo
HARRISBURG, Pa. (CBS) - A top state lawmaker is again pushing the idea of changing the way Pennsylvania awards its electoral votes in presidential elections.
Democrats immediately pounced on the proposal, calling it partisan "sour grapes" in the aftermath of this year's elections.
But Erik Arneson, spokesman for Senate Majority Leader Dominic Pileggi, a Republican from Chester, says when Pileggi proposed the idea in the last session, he got flak from both sides.
"Partisan Democrats opposed it because they thought President Obama would win, partisan Republicans opposed it because they thought Governor Romney would win. And I expect there will be people on each side of that discussion."
In the last session, Pileggi proposed linking electoral votes to the presidential votes cast in each Congressional district. This time, Pileggi suggests that the statewide winner of the presidential vote gets two electoral votes, with the rest awarded based on the percentage of the statewide vote. So for example, this year, Obama would have gotten 12 electoral votes, Romney 8.
