General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsKoch-Tied Groups Funded GOP Effort to Mess With Electoral College Rules
Koch-Tied Groups Funded GOP Effort to Mess With Electoral College Rules
Last election season, a shadowy nonprofit pumped hundreds of thousands of dollars into a campaign to change how electoral votes are counted. The group didnt disclose who was funding its effortsa fact that Mother Jones highlighted in a story titled Whos Paying for the GOPs Plan to Hijack the 2012 Election? But now, thanks to Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW), a nonpartisan government watchdog, its clear that organizations with ties to billionaire industrialists Charles and David Koch footed at least some of the bill.
Each state and the District of Columbia has a certain number of electoral votes, based on their population, and they get to decide for themselves how those votes should be allotted. Currently, every state except Maine and Nebraska gives all of their electoral votes to the candidate who wins the statewide popular vote. But in 2011, GOP lawmakers in Pennsylvania and Wisconsin introduced bills that would divide electoral votes among candidates based on how many congressional districts they won. Because Republicans drew the boundaries of the districts in those states, this scheme would be almost certain to hand Republican presidential candidates the majority of their electoral voteseven if more voters cast ballots for Democrats. (Read more about how the plan would work here.) Presuming the race is close enough, this could decide the nationwide outcome.
In the case of Pennsylvania, a mysterious nonprofit called All Votes Matter spent large sums lobbying for these changes. Local officials wondered about its funding sources. They raised an awful lot of money very quickly$300,000 in just a few days, Democratic Pennsylvania state Sen. Daylin Leach told Mother Jones at the time. Were all curious where that level of funding comes from. But All Votes Matter didnt disclose its donors, nor did it have to. The group is organized as a 501(c)4 social welfare nonprofit, which means that it can spend money on politics while keeping its donors secret. (Such groups are not supposed to spend more than half of their budget on political causes, but IRS enforcement is slack.) Thus the public knew little about the agendas behind this effort to upend the mechanics of presidential elections.
......................
http://www.motherjones.com/mojo/2014/01/koch-brothers-change-electoral-college-rules
JanT
(229 posts)kick & rec
RKP5637
(67,111 posts)Americans are ignorant of what is going on. These groups are working hard to undermine the US, but we've never lived through events like in some other countries, so many Americans IMO think it's just the same old same old and don't bother to pay attention, thinking others are taking care of it for them. Well, they are, and those not paying attention are not going to probably like the results of their inattention.