California Dems Trying to Undermine the Electoral College

Republicans in California have an initiative on the ballot to split up the state's electoral votes by congressional district, and the Dems are fighting back with a move to dump the electoral college altogether and elect presidents by popular vote:

SACRAMENTO — Democrats on Tuesday proposed putting on a 2008 ballot an initiative aimed at having California join the movement to elect presidents by popular vote.

The initiative, if successful, also would head off a Republican effort to get some of California's electoral votes.

GOP consultants have proposed a separate initiative to change California's winner-take-all system of awarding its 55 electoral votes. Under this measure, electoral votes would be awarded by how congressional districts vote, which could benefit the Republican nominee in this state with more registered Democrats.

If the competing measures make it onto the ballot in June or November, California could become a battleground over the electoral college, whose electors ultimately select the president and vice president. The state has more electoral votes than any other and more than 10% of the electoral college's 538.

Democrats backing the initiative filed Tuesday think that electing presidents by national popular vote would help the their party's nominee win the White House.

Not necessarily. This could backfire on them big time. California has become a pretty reliably Dem state in presidential elections, but if the Dem plan had been in effect in 2004, all of California's electoral votes would have gone to Bush instead of Kerry and we wouldn't have had to listen to Kerry whine for months afterwards.

Imagine a 2000-type scenerio in which under the existing rules Hillary Clinton wins enough states to clinch an electoral vote victory, but loses the popular vote. How do you think the Dems would react if California's 55 electoral votes went to the Republican even if Hillary won California? It would be Florida 2000 all over again.

I personally like the GOP idea. Each state has electoral votes equal to the number of congressional representatives they have. If I could design the electoral college HolyCoast style, I would assign the two electoral votes for each state's senator to the candidate that won the popular vote in that state, and then assign the other votes by congressional district. Some argue that this would guarantee a president and majority in congress from the same party, but that's not true. There have been many examples where a congressman was elected from one party in a district which voted for a president from the other party.

This plan would serve to even out the importance of the states in the electoral process. The congressional district in North Dakota would have the same importance as a congressional district in California. Instead of campaigning in just a few select states, the candidates would be required to conduct a truly national campaign. I think that would be good for everyone.