CALIFORNIA FOCUS: Stealing Elections

This is a repeat from last week with an update.

There is a new Republican plot to steal elections. This time aiming to steal electoral votes from California. This comes from a Palm Springs paper:

On the surface, it sounds good: Electoral votes should be proportional to the popular vote and candidates should have to pay more attention to California if they want to win here. But if a proposed measure that would reallocate California's 55 electoral votes passes, the outcome would fundamentally change how U.S. presidents are elected.

No one state, not even California, should be able to do that.

California has more electoral votes than any other state in the union. A ballot measure to reallocate these votes could result in a Republican being elected president each time out, regardless of the popular vote.

The initiative is a proposed amendment to the state elections code. The fear is that California voters won't realize the unintended consequences until it's too late.

Make no mistake, this is an attempt to grab votes and make it nearly impossible for a Democrat to become president this election and beyond...

"It's a Republican effort to lower the electorate vote count for Democrats," New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson, Democratic candidate for the presidency, told us at Thursday's Prez on the Rez forum. "It's a political power grab. I strongly oppose it and hope California will wake up to this."

To my California readers: If this ballot initiative passes, California will win most future elections for the Republicans...and do so against the will of most voters.

Fight this ill-conceived initiative. Contact the California media and oppose this measure. And tell the California Dem. party that you oppose it.

And you can read more opinions from other newspapers here.

When I posted this last week I got a comment defending the initiative and calling for more states to adopt it. I disagree. If this kind of change is done piecemeal, state by state, then it creates disparities that will allow partisan exploitation. The electoral college system was set up as a winner take all system and if we mess with it it should be done across the board in all states. IF this change were made in all 50 states at once, I would not be so opposed to it. But if is done ONLY as a way of manipulating the electoral vote to help one party or the other, then it subverts what the founding fathers envisioned our electoral system to be. As it is being proposed this change is unacceptable and nothing but a further attempt by Republicans to steal elections they can't win fairly.