If you can't win, change the rules

Legislators in Republican-controlled states are considering ways to revise their electoral voting systems. As it is now, most states contribute their full number of electoral votes to the candidate who wins a simple majority of votes. Currently, only Maine and Nebraska split their electoral votes.

That's the case with Virginia -- it voted blue in the past two presidential elections, but has a predominantly red state government. Under one proposal, its electoral votes would be allocated based on congressional districts.

The benefit would be electoral college voting that better represents the state's sentiment. The downside is that Virginia would cease to be a "battleground" state -- neither Republicans nor Democrats would see any benefit to campaigning in districts that are already decided.

Also in question is how the two "at large" senatorial electors are decided.

I think this would be a fine idea, but with one qualification -- we would need to change how congressional districts are decided. The current system benefits incumbents by "packing" and "cracking" minority party voters: the majority party will concentrate (pack) minority voters into one district and then divide (crack) outliers among several others.

Districts end up ideologically pure but geographically complex, and voters suffer for lack of choice -- real threats to incumbents are in the primaries rather than the general elections.

For example, take Virginia's 21st District. On its far eatern edge you have the city of Roanoke, which -- as a urban area -- probably has a higher proportion of Democrats than the rest of the district. By "cracking" the Roanoke Democrats among the 19th, 20th, and 21st districts, the effects of their votes in these districts is minimized, and all three districts are securely Republican.

I'm not a Virginia resident, so I don't really care too much one way or another how its legislature changes its electoral college rules. However, by allowing a statewide minority to vote by district AND redraw district lines, Virginia is creating a conflict of interest and contributes to the movement for a nation-wide popular vote for the president.