Two pieces of news should alarm you, and help you face the fact that this fight might go the distance. First, from Talking Points Memo:
California Counts, the Republican-led group gathering signatures for an initiative to split California's electoral votes by Congressional district, now say they are confident they'll get enough to be on the ballot.
Surprised? Shouldn't be.
Now, given that blocking the initiative's approval might be problematic, this news from SFGate ought to cheer you up:
The Field Poll found that 47 percent of registered voters back a change to California's system for electoral votes, with 35 percent opposed. Republicans generally support the change more than Democrats.
Ha ha! See? I said that should cheer you up, but it really shouldn't! I'm sarcastic like that sometimes.
While we should all call our attorney general and demand that he challenge and thoroughly investigate, we should also brace ourselves for the prospect of an epic battle. Again from SFGate:
"And I think there would be more involvement from outside the state than we've ever seen in any other initiative in California," (Field Poll Director Mark) DiCamillo said.
Firstly, every concerned Californian should call either the California Attorney General's Office or The Secretary of State and demand action! Yes, Action! with an exclamation point. State clearly that you are calling because of the many reports you have read about misleading signature gathering practices involving the electoral votes initiative, and that you think a full and public investigation is in order. Letters, emails, etc are all good.
The misleading petition campaign was designed to gather as many signatures as possible at the last minute (filing deadline Nov. 30th), to avoid scrutiny of their practices, and also to leave as little time as possible to mount a "signature withdrawal" campaign. But this must also be done! Again, with an exclamation point. If you, or someone you know, signed a petition or three in the past two weeks, you may have been duped!
This is from theSecretary of State's web site:
Withdrawal of Signatures
Any voter who has signed an initiative petition may withdraw his or her name by filing a written request for the withdrawal with the appropriate county elections official prior to the date the petition is filed by the proponent(s) (Sections 103, 9602).
Under the law, you have until next Friday to do so. Please do, and encourage anyone you know who might have signed to contact their local county elections official. This is very important! Very few people actually go to this much trouble, so any increase in these requests would be noted. Do it!
But these efforts may loose. The next step is confronting these numbers (again from SFGate):
When pollsters explained the political implication that Democratic presidential candidates might lose some electoral votes under a proportional system, the numbers changed: 49 percent supported the change and 42 percent opposed it. Opposition from Democrats and independent voters rose when the issue was put this way.
Still, the survey showed there is "initial support for the idea to change the California's system," said Mark DiCamillo, director of the Field Poll.
"I think voters on both sides tend to see the current winner-take-all to be a little bit unfair," he said. "Even the Democrats in the first question (before political ramifications were explained) were nearly evenly divided."
The biggest enemy in this campaign, should it come to pass, is IGNORANCE. Repugs have used ignorance as an effective weapon in initiative contests before.
What I find most important, besides the frighteningly divided numbers, is the fact that Dems polled were also evenly divided. In other words, many Dems do not fully understand the implications of this initiative, and that's the key.
Once Democratic voters understand that this initiative means they will lose all presidential elections henceforth, they will oppose it. This basic, simple, yet apparently unknown fact must be made known to every Democratic voter in the state. We must vote as a block on this initiative.
Many fair-minded California Republicans also agree that this initiative stinks, and many that don't are persuadable. This initiative should go down with a wide margin if we all get on the message.
And next year we'll see if we can't get this same initiative on the Texas ballot.