Assembly backs plan to give presidential votes on popular vote (CA)

[Kadie]

Assembly backs plan to give presidential votes on popular vote
By SAMANTHA YOUNG, Associated Press Writer

Tuesday, May 30, 2006


(05-30) 17:13 PDT SACRAMENTO, (AP) --

Frustrated that presidential candidates have spent so little time in California, lawmakers on Tuesday approved legislation to change how the state awards its electoral votes for president.

The bill approved 49-31 mostly along party lines in the Assembly would pledge California's 55 Electoral College votes to the winner of the national popular vote, a system critics charged was an attempt to circumvent the U.S. Constitution.

However, if the bill became law in California, it only would take effect if states with a combined total of 270 electoral votes — the number now required to win the presidency — also agreed to decide the election by popular vote.

The interstate compact the Assembly authorized is part of a national campaign launched in February by a Los Altos nonprofit to change the way the nation picks a president.

"Presidential candidates would have to come to California because of our population and they would have to take a position on issues that we care about," Assemblyman Tom Umberg, D-Santa Ana, said on the Assembly floor.

more...
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2006/05/30/state/n163019D90.DTL&type=politics

[jsamuel]

1. well, that would seem to hurt Dems more than Repubs...

:shrug: (if only Califoria and not every state)

[AX10]

2. I could support this ONLY if all 50 states do the same.