Sunday - September 16, 2007

Interesting Ballot Initiative in California

Seems the good people of California are being asked to put a new initiative to the vote. This particular one, wants to distribute California's electoral votes from a winner-take-all format to one where votes are distributed by congressional district, much like Maine's system.

A Republican-backed ballot initiative in California to swap the traditional winner-take-all presidential election for one where electoral votes are allocated by congressional district has made steady progress in recent weeks and has Democrats moving into overdrive to try to block it.

Under the proposed initiative, the statewide winner in the primary would get two electoral votes but the rest would be divided up on the basis of the number of districts that each candidate won.

While the idea has been proposed in the past, it is attracting attention — and concern on some sides — because of the support it has received and the activity under way to place it on the ballot. Last week, the Secretary of State approved the measure’s language and permitted the signature drive to begin.

Currently, all states hold winner-take-all votes except for Maine and Nebraska, which divide electoral votes by congressional district.

In the past four presidential elections, the Democratic presidential nominee has relied on the sizeable number of electoral votes in California to bolster their totals. The state currently possesses 55 electoral votes, more than 10 percent of the total electoral votes at stake nationwide and 21 votes more than those held by the next largest state, Texas.

If the proposed allocation system had been used in past elections, California’s electoral votes would have been split. In 2004, President Bush would have received 22 of the state’s 55 electoral votes and in 2000, Bush would have received 19 of California’s 54 electoral votes under the initiative. Bush narrowly edged out Democrat Al Gore in 2000 by just 5 electoral votes.

A shift of 20 electoral votes could greatly alter presidential elections, most likely in Republicans’ favor.

“If you’re a Republican, you’re going to love it. If you’re a Democrat, you’re going to hate it,” political scientist Sherry Bebitch Jeffe of the University of Southern California said of the initiative. “The conventional wisdom is a Republican can win an election without California and a Democrat can’t.”

The state Republican Party has endorsed the measure, which was put forward by attorney Thomas Hiltachk, who worked for Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and whose firm works for the state GOP. The governor has publicly expressed concern about the initiative, but has not announced a formal position on it.

Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean and Democratic state lawmakers have condemned the initiative as a “Republican power grab” and have vowed to work against the initiative and to raise money to increase awareness about their position. Read more.

Author: The Lockean
Technorati Tags: California electoral college
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