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Senate of Pennsylvania
Session of 2013 - 2014 Regular Session

MEMORANDUM

Posted: December 3, 2012 10:31 AM
From: Senator Dominic Pileggi
To: All Senate members
Subject: Legislation to Distribute Electoral Votes Proportionately
 
I plan to introduce legislation which would align Pennsylvania's electoral votes for president more closely with the state's popular vote by distributing electoral votes proportionately.

The United States Constitution gives each state a number of electors to the Electoral College equal to the combined total of its Senate membership and House of Representatives delegation. Presidential electors are chosen by the voters.

Currently, Pennsylvania uses a winner-take-all system of awarding electoral votes. My legislation would allocate electoral votes proportionately.

Under the proportional system, two of Pennsylvania’s 20 electors are chosen on a statewide, at-large basis (representing the two senatorial electors). The remaining 18 electors are chosen based on the percentage of the statewide vote earned by each candidate (rounded to the thousandths). For example, President Obama won 52.088% of the vote in November. Under this system, he would have received 12 of Pennsylvania’s 20 electors (the two statewide electors plus 10 of the 18 remaining electors, which would be distributed proportionately).

This advantage of this system is clear: It much more accurately reflects the will of the voters in our state.

This legislation is not the same as Senate Bill 1282 of the 2011-12 legislative session. That legislation would have allocated electors based on a district system.



Introduced as SB538