virginia state senator bill carrico. now, today carrico advanced his bill in the republican-led senate to change the way electoral votes are counted in the state. virginia democratic state senator john s. edwards told me on my radio show that democrats were completely blindsided by this move. >> it was a complete underhanded sneak attack on not only democrats but also the people of virginia because if people had had no prior warning this would happen there, have been no committee discussions on this, no hearings on this, and it runs contrary to the courtesies and traditions of the senate of virginia. >> they should not expect courtesy from the current republican party. they are willing to admit these changes are being made in order to make certain votes count for less. carrico told a virginia nbc affiliate the change is necessary because virginia's populace, urbanized areas can outvote rural regions such as his, rendering their will irrelevant? urbanized areas? this sounds like something we've heard before. >> i think th

charniele, this is a quote from state senator carrico. "it comes down for me as a state legislator to a fairness issue. i'm making sure the people of my district are represented." that's his quote. how is his district not being represented? >> that puzzles me. i don't know if he's talking about himself or maybe he just doesn't like that we elected president obama twice now here in virginia. his problem is he cannot accept that the demographics has changed. the republican message of not bringing everybody forward is not resounding with virginians. what they're having a problem with is that they can't realize that their policies are outdated. virginians are moving forward. we're more progressive, as you mentioned earlier, and you know what? people don't like their message of hatred and exclusion. so i'm not sure what he's talking about, but that's not the virginia way. what's happened in the senate is not the virginia way. >> you know, the way it works now in almost every state is the old law, rule of one person, one vote. everybody in virg

yesterday it was this isolated legislator, senator bill carrico from virginia. today it was this isolated legislator, and that would be representative peter lund of michigan. now michigan is in the picture. lund is set to introduce a similar rigging bill in michigan's legislature. michigan speaker jase bolger said today he is open to pursuing the strategy in his state. the fight to protect our democratic process, my friends, is far from over. and i know it's only january of 2013, and we're a long way from the midterms and a long way from 2016, but this is the modern-day politics that the republicans have decided to play. you take your eye off the ball we lose. we can't turn it over. get your cell phones out. i want to know what you think. tonight's question, will the democrats stop the republicans from cheating in elections? text a for yes. text b for no. to 622639. you can always go to our blog at ed.msnbc.com. we encourage you to do that. we have the results of the poll coming later on in the show. joining me tonight congresswoman debbie wasserman schultz, cha

, virginia state's privileges and elections committee voted 11-4 to kill republican senator bill carrico'srigging bill. even ohio's jon husted added nobody in ohio is advocating this. rick snyder told bloomberg tv "i don't think this is the appropriate time to look at this." "appropriate time" is the key phrase there, folks. and just days after calling something worth looking at, wisconsin's governor scott walker is expressing, quote, real concern. the change would make irrelevant in presidential campaigns, which isn't exactly taking it off the table, my friends. so let's be, in my opinion, absolutely clear here. this isn't over. republicans talk and talk absolutely all they want, but i think that this plan is still alive. and they have 1,378 days to find another way to make your vote count less, which is exactly why we need to keep the spotlight on this issue. but it looks like round one goes to the supporters of democracy. >>> tonight in our survey, i asked you is today's testimony enough for congress to act on gun laws? 64% of you say yes. 36% of you say no. >>> coming up, louisiana gov