During a workshop at an American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) policy summit last year, former Pennsylvania senator and Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum explained how Republicans can keep power through structural imbalance alone, according to a recording obtained by the Center for Media and Democracy. Because so many Democratic voters are concentrated in urban areas, Santorum explained, “Rural voters, even though there are fewer of them … actually have an outsize granted power under this process.”
In other words, elections can be won based more on geography than on the absolute number of votes. “[W]e may not even be in an absolute majority when it comes to the people who agree with us,” Santorum said. “But because of the way the concentration of votes has changed in this country, we can actually accomplish things.”