California's
legislature has passed a bill that may spur a national movement to elect the President by--gasp!--
popular vote.
Lawmakers sent Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger a bill Wednesday that would make California the first state to jump aboard a national movement to elect the president by popular vote.
Under the legislation, California would grant its electoral votes to the nominee who gets the most votes nationwide -- not the most votes in California. Get enough other states to do the same, backers of the bill say, and soon presidential candidates will have to campaign across the nation, not just in a few key "battleground" states such as Ohio and Michigan that can sway the Electoral College vote.
Assemblyman
Tom Umberg (D-Anaheim) led sponsorship of the bill,
AB2948. (pdf)
The Guvenator hasn't taken a position on the bill, but if he signs off, California will be the first to endorse 'National Popular Vote' legislation now pending in five other states--Louisiana, Colorado, Missouri, Illinois, and New York.
Even if approved by the Gov., the bill would not take effect until passed by a minimum of 11 other states, based on population. Yet if this 2005 survey(pdf) by Seldin Research is to be believed, a significant level of support for electoral reform already exists in key states.
The Grey Old Lady herself weighed in the issue in a March 14 editorial:
The Electoral College is an antidemocratic relic. Everyone who remembers 2000 knows that it can lead to the election of the candidate who loses the popular vote as president. But the Electoral College's other serious flaws are perhaps even more debilitating for a democracy. It focuses presidential elections on just a handful of battleground states, and pushes the rest of the nation's voters to the sidelines.
There is an innovative new proposal for states to take the lead in undoing the Electoral College. Legislatures across the country should get behind it.
Amen to that.