Delicious Ironies in California Electoral College Power Grab

election by popular vote could end up as hairy--or hairier than election by the current electoral college system. Either way, the idea that a state would give it's electoral votes to the popular candidate regardless of the way the citizens of that state voted is just disgusting.

I'm curious about the constitutionality of any ballot initiative that appoints electors, regardless of how. That's supposed to be the decision of the legislature

I think the reason it took the GOP this long to dream up the idea is that it is so craven in concept, so blatantly unfair and inequitable, that even the right-wing operatives in the Republican Party didn't have the audacity to suggest it-- until they got desperate.

It's kind of on the level of kidnapping the opposing candidate's mother in order to enforce concessions. Is that kind of thing going to be next for them? How far will they go to win?

THE REFORM OF THE Electoral College that preserves the Electoral College’s intent, but distributes the votes in a more democratic fashion strengthens the American system of government, helping the large and small states equally. It is constitutional, democratic AND IT IS FAIR.

"The U.S. Constitution prohibits a ballot measure that would trump a state legislature's chosen method of appointing electors. In Article II, Section 1, the Constitution declares that electors shall be appointed by states 'in such manner as the Legislature thereof may direct.' That's legislature. California's could scrap its current winner-take-all approach and adopt a district-by-district system for allocating electors (as only Maine and Nebraska currently do). But the voters—whom the initiative supporters have turned to because they don't have the support of the Democratic-controlled legislature—cannot do this on their own." From Slate By Doug Kendall Posted Thursday, Sept. 13, 2007, at 7:34 AM ET

Let see if I have this correct. Presently the rest of the states in the union reward all of their state electoral votes to one candidate. But California should divide its electoral votes up. The reason for doing this is the present system inequitable and unfair. My question is what select group of wealth white men feel the present system is unfair? Sound like we just have some soar losers trying to change the rules of the game!

The last statewide vote for governor in the State of Washington shows me that taking a popular vote nationwide is doomed from the start. In the 2004 Washington vote, there was documented evidence of dead people voting, absentee ballots mailed out later than the mandated date thereby disallowing some voters the right to even vote, votes by convicted felons that were officially counted which is against state law, more votes counted than registered voters in some precincts, legal votes just plain not counted at all, etc. This from a state that is ranked 14th in population. How do you think the popular vote is manipulated in the 13 states that have a larger population? When the stakes are even higher in the Presidential election, how can we insure that the "popular" vote is not manipulated as badly, if not worse, as the Electorial vote is today?

I think you need to look at this from another perspective: as a Northern Californian, I have experienced the apathy that comes from knowing that your vote doesn't matter, and that your voice won't be heard because you have two very liberal cities making all the decisions for your state. If this initiative were to pass, I can almost guarantee that the amount of people voting in California would increase--on both sides of the aisle! As a political scientist, I have studied the trend of voter apathy in this state, and I truly feel that should the electoral votes be more evenly split, more Californians would be likely to vote because they would feel like their vote matters. I honestly do not see it as beneficial to one party--but rather beneficial to the entire state in encouraging our citizens to take part in the political process.

This proposition is the only way to force cannidates of all parties to stop fund raising here and start campaigning here. I wonder how this is going to be denounced by the democratic party that hates the electorial college any way. This is more popular vote based without destroying the the original intent of the electorial college.

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