The Electoral College: Does Our Vote Count?

Tom Corbett

Facts:

1. In early September Senators Tom Corbett and Dominic Pileggi proposed the idea of getting rid of the winner-takes-all policy that Pennsylvania takes with their electoral college votes.
2. The new plan would be to award one Electoral vote per Congressional district, the winner of each district gains the vote.
3. According to Pennsylvania's vote in the last election Obama would have beaten John McCain by a small margin (you know what they say, Pittsburgh and Philadelphia, with Alabama in between).
4. Both parties are, for the most part, opposed to this idea.
5. The Republican side thought it would be good, at first, because they realized that Obama could have gotten on 11 votes from Pennsylvania, instead of 21. But they then realized that it could backfire because there is a possibility that Obama could turn many of the districts blue.
6. Under this new system the state-wide campaign fund, of Obama, would be used in each district instead of using it on the state as a whole. This would increase voter turnout. Also the Republican party realized that if Democratic voter turnout is increased then there is an much higher chance that they will lose, because of the 201 million registered voters in the US, 72 million are Democrat while 55 million are Republican. (this is an est. made in 2004 so the number must be higher, here a link http://www.usatoday.com/news/opinion/columnist/neuharth/2004-01-22-neuharth_x.htm ).
7. GOP Rep. from New York is fighting the liberal push of a direct popular vote for the President, getting rid of the Electoral College entirely (yeah!).
8. The Democrats are against this even though it could possible create a greater turn out of Democratic voters.
9. This was called "vote manipulation," which is funny because this would be a clearer way for peoples votes too actually count, while both sides say that its bad and that it changes your vote, while the actual electoral college has the control of "your" vote.
10. Dem. Dalyn Leach says that this is rigging the election and it is not good. (I completely disagree)

Questions:

1. Do both sides see this as bad because it would give more power to the people?
2. If there was a poll, public opinion, how well would this idea be perceived?
3. Has President Obama said anything on this?
4. How were the processes in Maine and Nebraska changed?
5. Would this be seen as a liberal concept or a conservative concept, also would it be seen differently by both sides?