John Husted Wants Ohio to "Not Matter As Much"

After failing in his attempt to limit early voting hours in Ohio’s urban counties and in his attempt to change the way provisional ballots would be counted, (trying to slide the provisional ballot change in on the Friday evening before the election), Ohio Secretary of State John Husted, is trying something new. In the 2016 presidential election, Mr. Husted wants to split Ohio’s 18 electoral college votes and award them by district. “It will not be a winner-take-all state, and you would not have another elections controversy about Ohio because we would not matter as much anymore."

what eye thynk:   “We would not matter as much anymore”?! Since when is making your state inconsequential something to be desired?  Mr. Husted, foiled in his 2012 voter suppression campaign, seems to be getting an early start on 2016, even if his explanation should make no sense to the voters of Ohio. And someone needs to remind him that any “elections controversy” that happened in Ohio this year was the result of his trying to rig the election for the Republican party.

Registered voters in Ohio break down fairly evenly--48% Democrat, 50% Republican, 2% Independent. We are a true toss-up state, a place where the battle can be won or lost--unless someone is permitted to stack the deck. This year’s Republican designed and highly controversial redistricting packed Democratic voters into the fewest possible districts, (in the urban areas around Cleveland, Columbus and Cincinnati), leaving the rest of the state’s districts to the Republicans. Because of this biased design, and despite the popular vote going to President Obama 50% to 48%, Mr. Husted’s plan would have given 66% of Ohio’s electoral votes to Mitt Romney with 12 of the state’s 18 electoral votes going to the Republican candidate.

I think the electoral college voting system’s time has passed and we should eliminate it and elect our President by popular vote; but I'm realistic enough to know that is not going to happen any time soon.  A more palatable answer might be to keep the electoral college but do away with the winner take all system and instead assign those votes according to the popular results. But allowing the party that holds the majority in the state legislature to design the voting districts in favor of their party and then allowing those voting districts to decide an election is just plain wrong.

Mr. Husted’s idea is simply another attempt to silence Ohio’s Democratic voice--another example of the Republican party putting winning ahead of anything else. They often spout platitudes like “the people have spoken” to legitimize their agenda; but it seems that more and more, the only people they hear are those who speak fluent Red.