Politics: Choose Your Own Voters

Now playing: Slate V, a video-only site from the world's leading online magazine. Visit Slate V at www.slatev.com.
Politics Choose Your Own Voters The GOP is already plotting how to marginalize urban voters in the next election. By David Weigel Posted Tuesday, Dec 11, 2012, at 11:52 PM ET In the busy mind of Virginia state Sen. Charles Carrico, voters can be divided into two species. The first: "people in my district," which covers a swath of the state's rural southwest. These voters are real people. The second species: voters in "metropolitan districts." In 2012 and 2008, rural voters watched Democrats turn out that metro vote, which elected Barack Obama. That experience apparently taught Carrico and the people he represents that "their votes don't mean anything." Carrico's solution: Make the rural vote matter more and make the metro vote count less. His bill, SB273, would assign 11 of Virginia's electoral votes to its 11 congressional districts. The state's two remaining votes would go to whoever received the "highest number of votes in a majority of congressional districts." Four of those 11 districts contain huge clusters of Democrats, and voted for Obama. The next seven districts, largely rural, voted for Mitt Romney. Had the Carrico proposal gone into effect this year, Romney would have lost Virginia's popular vote by 4 points and carried nine of its 13 electors. The metro denizen's vote would have still meant something, sure. It would have meant less than the vote of the angry coal miner in Appalachia. When I heard about the Carrico proposal and called around, Democrats shrugged. Virginia Republicans control both houses of the Legislature, but they control the Senate only narrowly. Virginia voted Republican for 44 years until Barack Obama came along. Why would ... To continue reading, click here. Join the Fray: our reader discussion forum What did you think of this article? POST A MESSAGE | READ MESSAGES Also In Slate Choose Your Own Voters Napoleon Wasn't Defeated by the Russians PolitiFact Names Romney Ad "Lie of the Year"	Advertisement
Manage your newsletters subscription: Unsubscribe | Forward to a Friend | Advertising Information
Ideas on how to make something better? Send an e-mail to slatenewsletter@nl.slate.com. Copyright 2011 The Slate Group | Privacy Policy The Slate Group | c/o E-mail Customer Care | 1350 Connecticut Ave NW Suite 410 | Washington, D.C. 20036