[SmithL]

Make every vote count!

[The KG9 Kid]

What a grand idea.

[RobFromGa]

All the Democrats who were for this in Colorado will now line up against it in California. It's called hypocrisy.

[Cicero]

I'm not sure if this is a good idea. It would lead to tinkering with the process in every state, according to which party would benefit and which party happened to be in control, and probably it would also lead to interference in the process by judges, who have already imposed all sorts of redistricting decisions on the state legislatures.

[Reaganez]

LET EVERY VOTE COUNT!

[Perdogg]

I am waiting for Republicans to do the same in Illinois, Michigan, Pennsyvannia, New York, and New Jersey.

Bush would have won Michigan had it not been for Wayne County, Illinois if not for Cooke Co.

[WildTurkey]

I am sure that the California guy that paid for the Colorado initiative that failed will help with the same in California.

[muawiyah]

This idea has been around since Roosevelt. For the most part it puts a Republican in the White House every single time.

Odds are it will never be adopted.

[digger48]

Sure, if we could have all those CA red districts, I'd give 'em the 1 blue of 8 here in IN.

[AuH2ORepublican]

"Two Republican lawmakers plan to introduce a bill Monday that would award California's most-in-the-nation electoral votes by congressional districts, a step they say would make it "the leading battleground state for all future elections." "

---

I thought a battleground state was one in which both candidates would be, um, battling in. If California allocated its electoral votes by congressional district, it would be eminently clear right off the bat that the Democrat candidate would almost certainly win 35 electoral votes (he'd win in 33 districts plus get the 2 CDs for winning statewide) and the GOP candidate would get 20 electoral votes. If the Democrats had a really, really good night and worked hard to get out the vote, maybe they would win 40 electoral votes instead of 35, and it would be likelier for the GOP to actually carry the state than to win as many as 25 congressional districts. Thanks to the incumbents' protection redistricting plan approved by the CA legislature, only a handful of congressional districts in California are more competitive at the presidential level than the state as a whole. Switiching from winner-takes-all to a system similar to that found in Maine would be the stupidest thing that the State of California ever did, since instead of being a 55-electoral vote behemoth that the Democrats must keep happy while the Republicans try to woo, it would become no more important than Connecticut or Kansas in presidential elections.

But I hope those dumb Democrats adopt such a law. : )

[InterceptPoint]

This would guarantee a Republican President for the foreseeable future. I rate the chances of it becoming law at something like one in a jillion. Well, maybe it's not that bad. Maybe it's two in a jillion.

[Whitehawk]

actually, electoral votes should be assigned by counties imho.That would be a true federalist system and return the power of representation to the most responsive electorate.The country has strayed far from a system where state legislatures elected senators. What do you think???????????

[Phantom Lord]

The libs loved the idea when it was Colorado trying it. Of course that is because it would help have helped Kerry.

But now that such a move in California would make the chances of a RAT winning the White House even slimmer I will safely bet that the RATS are now opposed to it.

Situational Ethics.

[Amerigomag]

We have survived as long as we have because we are not a direct democracy.

Leave things along. There is great wisdom in our democratic republic system.

[Modok]

Bad idea. I like the electorial college as it is. I would rather see the state of Califorina split in two. One state could be called SanFraLASac and the other could be called Red Califorina. Then one day my family and I might be able to live in California without being in legal trouble as soon as we got there.

[dpwiener]

This is an excellent idea which I have long advocated. It should be noted that it is very different from the Colorado proposal: Colorado would have split Electoral votes according to the ratio of overall votes instead of in winner-take-all Congressional Districts. Hence Colorado would almost always have a 5-4 split for one party or the other, and it would hardly be worth battling over its net one Electoral vote.

If the California proposal was combined with fair redistricting (which will be the subject of an upcoming initiative measure), then a large number of Congressional Districts would be competitive for both parties. California (and every other state which adopted this procedure) would instantly become a true battleground state. A strong campaign by a strong candidate from either party could sweep most of the available Electoral votes, making it well worth the effort and expense of campaigning throughout California.

Of course this is unlikely to be adopted. The Democrats currently have a lock on ALL of California's Electoral votes, so why would the Democrat-dominated state legislature pass a reform which could only dilute their Electoral College totals? And if the Republicans ever regained control of the state legislature, they would similarly be reluctant to pass a reform which would dilute their Electoral College totals in a state that was then shifting back in their direction.

[Soul Seeker]

This may sound like a good idea on the surface, until you contemplate how districts could be divided.

What's to stop Dems from making every block of San Francisco a congressional district and unifying the conservative blocks of the state into one?

Successful in CA, they then move to split conservative leaning states in same manner.

We should keep our current system.

Instead, I recommend all Californian Conservatives migrate. CA would lose some of its electoral advantage with the descrease in the population count, "red" states would turn solid and "Blue" states would become swing states would the conservative immigration.

[GraniteStateConservative]

	ACTUAL RESULTS				MAINE-NEBRASKA RESULTS				DIFFERENCE IN PLANS
YEAR	DEMS	REPS	OTHERS	WINNER	DEMS	REPS	OTHERS	WINNER	DEMS	REPS	OTHERS
1960	303	219	15	Kennedy	252	280	5	Nixon	-51	61	-10
1964	486	52	0	Johnson	466	72	0	Johnson	-20	20	0
1968	191	301	46	Nixon	190	290	58	Nixon	-1	-11	12
1972	17	520	0	Nixon	62	476	0	Nixon	45	-44	-1
1976	297	240	1	Carter	269	269	0	Tie	-28	29	-1
1980	49	489	0	Reagan	141	397	0	Reagan	92	-92	0
1984	13	525	0	Reagan	69	469	0	Reagan	56	-56	0
1988	111	426	1	Bush	161	377	0	Bush	50	-49	-1
1992	370	168	0	Clinton	323	215	0	Clinton	-47	47	0
1996	379	159	0	Clinton	345	193	0	Clinton	-34	34	0
2000	266	271	1	Bush	250	288	0	Bush	-16	17	-1

[DM1]

Its About Time
George Will mentioned this years ago

[ken21]

this was dumb in colorado, and dumb in california.

[traviskicks]

stupid idea. I hate idiot Republicans who will sacrifice prinicpal for politics.