Sen. Barbara Boxer: Stop the GOP Electoral College power grab in California

[marmar]

by Sen. Barbara Boxer at HuffPost:

Stop the GOP Electoral College power grab in California
Posted August 16, 2007 | 01:35 PM (EST)



Just when you thought it was safe to start thinking about having a Democrat in the White House, along comes a cynical power grab by Republican operatives. And unfortunately, it's happening right here in my own state of California.

If you haven't heard already, Republican strategists recently announced plans to begin raising money for a dangerous initiative that would radically change the way California apportions our electoral votes in presidential elections. Rather than awarding all of California's electoral votes to the candidate that wins the popular vote -- the way it works in every single state except the small states of Maine and Nebraska -- their scheme would divvy up California's electoral votes based on the number of Congressional districts each candidate wins.

What does this mean? Well, if the last few elections are any guide, rather than the Democratic nominee winning all 55 of California's electoral votes in 2008, this new partisan scheme could hand 20 of California's electoral votes to the Republican candidate and only 35 to the Democrat.

Don't get me wrong: After the 2000 and 2004 election debacles, I'm a strong advocate for election reform. But it's absolutely wrong for California to go it alone. It's just patently unfair for a large "blue" state like California to change our system for awarding electoral votes while other large states which trend "red" like Texas and Florida don't change their system at the same time.

This isn't reform -- this is a partisan power grab by Republican operatives in the Karl Rove tradition. ......(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/sen-barbara-boxer/stop-the-gop-electoral-co_b_60728.html

[rocktivity]

1. If all fifty states were doing it at once, it would be at least intelligible

But for some states to change their electoral college laws while others don't--well, it's like some states recognizing gay marriages while others don't!

:headbang:
rocknation

[marmar]

2. Agreed....I'd support it if it were uniform....

And if it were uniform, Al Gore would be president.

[Warren DeMontague]

5. Actually, if we're interested in making the US Government representative of the US Population

the first thing we should do is alter the U.S. Senate, so that 33 Million Californians don't have the same 1/50th say as 400,000 Wyoming Residents. That is patently unfair.

But the same logic which gave us the Senate gave us the winner-takes-all Electoral College. If we can alter one, I don't see why we can't alter both.

[slackmaster]

16. What seems "patently unfair" to a Californian looks reasonable to a person in Wyoming

I'd be very hesitant to tinker with the checks and balances that generally work OK. Their intent is partly to allow each state to preserve its own character, as well as protecting its political and economic interests.

[Warren DeMontague]

19. I'm sure it looks reasonable to them, their vote counts 66 times more than mine does in the Senate.

But the bottom line is, it skews the U.S. Government far more rural and conservative than the character of most of its population. And we can see the direct policy results as we speak. Most Americans think abortion should remain legal, and our President is from a party that wants to put women in jail for taking the birth control pill.

That said, I don't hold out a whole lot of hope that the fundamental structure underlying the U.S. Senate will change any time soon, if ever. My point is only, if people are going to grouse about issues built into the structure of the Electoral College, the same Founders' wisdom which gave us that gave us the Senate. Both have their inherent flaws.

[Warren DeMontague]

3. The People of California will never go for it. The Diebold machines might, so thank God for Bowen

in the SOS office, and not McPherson.

[EFerrari]

4. TG for Boxer! Please keep this kicked!

The Thuggery will NEVER stop trying to turn CA.

Help.

K&R

[HowHasItComeToThis]

6. WHERE IS DARRYL ISSA IN THIS NONSENSE

HE IS A MAJOR ROVE IN CALIFORNIA.
BROUGHT YOU AAAANOLLD.

[L. Coyote]

8. Arnold took the prize away from Issa and his gang!

[GreenTea]

10. Backed financially by Rove & the WH hidden funds...

Along with Rove & Enron getting rid of elected Dem Davis, they also ousted elected Dem Shelley as SoS and installed a republican as SoS to count CA votes...

Cheers to Debra Bowen!

[slackmaster]

14. Hard to tell who is actually bankrolling it

The group called Californians for Equal Representation is rather stealthy.

Here is their Request for Title and Summary for Proposed Initiative, filed with the AG on July 17:

http://ag.ca.gov/cms_pdfs/initiatives/2007-07-17_07-0032_Initiative.pdf

[marmar]

22. He's such a king-sized asshole....

n/t

[tbyg52]

7. Straight neocon vote grab for 2008

You can tell they are worried....

[slackmaster]

15. Senator Boxer and others are worried too

And rightly so. 400,000 signatures and a couple million dollars could give this turkey a pretty good chance at flying.

[last_texas_dem]

9. Not worth supporting even for partisan reasons

I'm all for abolishing the Electoral College altogether and moving to a nationwide popular vote, but this "allocation by Congressional district" measure is perhaps even less democratic than the "winner-take-all" allocation currently in place in most states. At least in "winner-take-all", the overall popular vote winner in each state receives that state's votes. Under this proposed system, the way Electoral votes are allocated is subjected to which party happened to control the state's legislature at the beginning of the decade, allowing gerrymandering of Congressional districts to have an effect on the outcome of the Presidential race. California voters should consider if they want one ultra-partisan jackass like a Tom Delay to essentially be able to control how their electoral votes are allocated as, if this had been in place in TX during this decade, Delay's re-redistricting would have had an effect on how several Congressional districts' electoral votes were allocated. Republicans should also consider that, even if this would help them in California, there are other states- "red" and "pink" states like Texas, Florida, North Carolina, Virginia, and Ohio- that if a measure such as this were to pass it could come back to bite them in the ass. Overall, it's simply not worth supporting because it wouldn't do anything to improve upon the existing system.

[John Kerry VonErich]

11. Abolishing Electorial College will never work.

It's like putting the nation's power to Los Angeles, New York City, Chicago, and other major cities and to hell with the least populous states.

[Bill McBlueState]

23. well, if lots of people live in those cities

then those cities should get a lot of attention. NYC has 16 times as many people as Wyoming, so it should have 16 times the influence in a national election.

[John Kerry VonErich]

24. Is it fair to Wyoming if their votes don't matter because it don't have a major city?

nt

[Bill McBlueState]

25. "Wyoming" is not a person

In a direct election, the votes of Wyoming residents *would* matter. Each voter in Wyoming would get one vote, just like each voter in California or Florida would get one vote. Under the current system, people who happen to live in small states or in swing states get a disproportionate amount of influence.

[John Kerry VonErich]

26. It's not right to put the power to high populous cities.

The best way for election reform is redistricting reform so that people like Delay won't disrtict those for political advantage.

[slackmaster]

13. Allocation by district would be OK if every state did it

But that's clearly not the intent of the people behind this.

[slackmaster]

12. I would not bet on California voters not approving this in a referendum

As of February 2007, just 42.5% of CA voters were registered as Democrats.

Republicans accounted for 34.2%, with Declined To State making up 18.8% and Other 4.5%.

35 California counties have Republican majorities, compared to 22 for Democrats (Alpine County is evenly split).

The Democratic Party has been losing membership share at about twice the rate of the GOP.

http://www.sos.ca.gov/elections/ror/ror_oddyr/hist_reg_stats.pdf

[gatorboy]

17. The thing is, Republicans come out strong for these off year ballot initiatives.

More strongly than Democrats. Which is what these folks putting this together are hoping for.

[slackmaster]

18. They're also hoping for support from DTS and minority party voters

And they may well get it if this makes it to the ballot.

We must uses every legal dodge and dirty trick we can think of to stop it.

:sarcasm:

[WI_DEM]

20. What would be fair is to abolish the electoral college all together

[marmar]

21. I agree with that, too....

n/t