By Grant Morgan –
It is unlikely that Illinois will become the third state to change how it allocates its electoral votes for president, but that isn’t stopping some State lawmakers from trying to change the system.
House Bill 3109, recently introduced by Springfield Republican republican Tim Butler, would change the State’s winner-take-all electoral system to one that is more representative of downstate Illinois.
“A single State now has a multitude of differing regional interests within it. …It makes sense that we update how we award our electoral votes for president,” Butler said in a news release last week. He couldn’t be reached for further comment Monday.
As with all states, Illinois has one electoral college vote for each of its congressional representatives (18) and senators (2), for a total of 20. In presidential elections, the candidate who wins the statewide popular vote gets all 20 electoral college votes.
Butler’s bill would change it so electoral votes are awarded based on which candidate wins in each congressional district, with two of those electoral votes, those for the senators, based on the statewide popular vote.
“The rural areas could potentially be represented in a much more fair fashion under the model in this bill,” said Republican representative Darren Bailey from Louisville, the chief co-sponsor of Butler’s bill.
Butler’s proposal would have changed Illinois’ allocation in the 2016 presidential election, when Hillary Clinton won all of the State’s 20 electoral votes. If Butler’s plan were in place, Clinton would have won 13 electoral votes, and Donald Trump seven.
As election-tracking website 270 to Win notes, most state electoral college reforms are proposed “when the party of the losing presidential candidate differs from the party controlling the state legislature,” as is the case in Illinois.
Whether proposed reforms would help the minority party candidate in a particular state is unclear, however.
After Mitt Romney lost the 2012 president election, and Pennsylvania’s 20 electoral votes, a Republican state senator proposed a shift similar to what Butler has put forth in Illinois.
But in 2016, Trump, the Republican candidate, would have received nine fewer electoral votes from Pennsylvania under a split allotment than he actually won.
Only Maine and Nebraska have adopted the congressional-district method.
Illinois has given all its electoral votes to a Democratic presidential candidate since 1988.
— Capitol News Illinois