Pa. plan to shuffle electoral votes on hold

The Pennsylvania Senate majority leader is backing off a proposal that threatened to upset how the state’s electoral votes are allocated.

Sen. Dominic Pileggi, a Chester County Republican, has signaled his electoral reform proposal can wait until after the Legislature passes other top-priority bills.

The plan was enough to hit a nerve with Pennsylvania’s congressional delegation, some of whom expressed concern that if the state no longer awarded its electoral votes to the popular vote winner, but by congressional district, their own elections would be more hotly contested.

But Gov. Tom Corbett says he likes the idea of dismantling the state’s winner-take-all method of awarding electoral votes.

“I still support the bill. I believe it is a fair representation to the people of Pennsylvania and to all the states across our states,” Corbett said. “I see no movement on it. I’m not going to push for movement, but I still support it.”

Pileggi said in a post on his Facebook page the reform plan would need widespread support in the Legislature, and he wants to first focus on bills related to education, Marcellus Shale natural gas extraction, and transportation infrastructure funding.