In November, the Republicans used gerrymandering to win the U.S. House of Representatives. Now they want to use it to win the presidency in 2016.

By artfully redrawing district maps, the Republicans were able to win a majority of the House seats in 2012 -- despite the fact that Democratic House candidates garnered 1.3 million more votes than GOP candidates nationwide.

Now the Republicans want to duplicate that political heist -- except this time their target is the presidency. Last week Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus endorsed a scheme to allocate electoral votes by U.S. House districts, instead of state-wide. They want to rig the Electoral College so that a GOP candidate can win even if he or she loses the popular vote.
Right now, 48 of the 50 states allocate their electoral votes in a state-wide, winner-take-all manner. The candidate that wins the state gets all of its electoral votes. Two states, Maine and Nebraska, use what is called the Congressional District Method, where the state's electoral votes are divided up among the state's U.S. House districts. The candidate who wins a district gets one of the state's electoral votes. (Two electoral votes end up going to the candidate who wins the state-wide vote.)