A few months ago a group of Republicans, anxious to overcome their perceived disadvantage in the upcoming presidential election, began collecting signatures to put an initiative on the ballot for the 2008 June primary election. The initiative would change the way California's electoral votes are assigned. Instead of all the electoral votes going to the winner of the statewide election, they would be divided according to who won in each congressional district. That would mean that California's many electoral votes would be divided between the Republican candidate and the Democratic candidate. Since no other large state does this (two small states do and it has never had any significant impact on the outcome of the election), Republicans would be at a distinct advantage in the presidential election. No red state is currently planning on doing this.
You may think that, since California is still considered a blue state, such an initiative would easily be defeated, but consider this: the election the promoters of this initiative are aiming for is in June, while the presidential primary is in February this year. How many people will actually go to the polls in June? You can bet the promoters of this initiative will have their voters out in force since it could help them win the presidential race, which will probably be extremely close as it has been for the past two elections. But how many citizens of California who oppose such a move will even know about it?
If this was a plan that was being implemented in every state in the nation, I would be all for it. But since it will only be on the ballot in California, and all other states operate according to winner-take-all, implementing this initiative would be blatantly undemocratic and unfair, especially to the Democratic candidate. And it will make it easier for the Republican candidate to spend less money in California than he would normally have to spend to try and win the state.
The promoters of this initiative include those who sponsored the recall of Gray Davis. One big supporter is my Congressman Darrell Issa, who funded the recall because he wanted to run for governer, then cried on television when he had to leave the race because the party had already annointed Arnold Schwarzenegger.
Petitioners are out all over California trying to get signatures. Please, if you care about the fairness of our elections, and the importance of California's electoral votes, don't sign this petition.
