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In the long, hot autumn of 2000, the world was shocked by the contempt for democracy shown by the Republican Party. They knew their man had lost the popular vote to Al Gore by half a million votes. They knew the majority of voters in Florida itself had pulled a lever for Gore. But they fought -- amid the confetti of hanging chads -- to stop the state's votes being counted, and to ensure that the Supreme Court imposed George W. Bush on the nation. Today, that contempt for democracy is on display again. In California right now, there is...

Backers of a California initiative that could significantly aid the next Republican presidential nominee said today they're still collecting signatures to qualify it for the state's ballot in June. To qualify the measure, its supporters must obtain signatures from 434,000 registered California voters. So to ensure they reach the required mark, the initiative supporters aim to amass about 700,000 signatures. The measure calls for California to change the winner-take-all method for its 55 electoral votes -- more than one-fifth of the total needed to win the White House. Instead, the electoral votes would be apportioned based primarily on the outcome...

What do you do if you can't carry state? Try to hijack 20 Electoral College votes -- A dangerous ballot measure that could hijack the presidential election is back in play.Once again signatures are being gathered to qualify a Republican-backed initiative that would rig the way California's electoral votes are counted and, as a result, possibly decide who is elected president of the United States in 2008.No candidate has claimed responsibility for the initiative, but there are some obvious fingerprints on the initiative drive. Paul Singer, a Wall Street hedge fund manager with close ties to GOP presidential candidate Rudy...

Inland Rep. Darrell Issa is throwing his political clout and significant financial support behind a state ballot initiative to change the way California's electoral votes are cast in presidential elections -- a measure some say could decide the next president. The wealthy congressman, who single-handedly jumpstarted the 2003 recall of Gov. Gray Davis, said Tuesday he has agreed to support the measure both financially and by providing access to his own fundraising network, including his substantial e-mail lists. Issa, R-Vista, declined to say how much money he would give, describing his contribution as fluid. Dave Gilliard, a Republican consultant with...

Two consultants revive measure, hoping Issa will help fund $2 million in signature-gathering costs. Two Republican political consultants are trying to revive an initiative to change how California's electoral votes are tallied in next year's presidential election, seeking support from major GOP donors including Rep. Darrell Issa, who financed the 2003 gubernatorial recall.Sacramento-based consultant Dave Gilliard, an Issa adviser, is spearheading a drive to collect at least 600,000 more signatures by mid-November for an initiative that would divvy up California's electoral college votes by congressional district. The June 2008 initiative could provide next year's Republican presidential candidate with an additional...

The recent bid to end California’s winner-take-all electoral vote system -- a change that will likely boost GOP chances in capturing the White House next year -- is doomed unless a major donor steps forward to underwrite this ballot initiative’s signature-gathering effort. During two weeks of petitioning before its funds ran out late last September, the group Californians for Equal Representation had collected 115,000 signatures, political consultant Mike Arno told Newsmax. To qualify for next June’s statewide ballot, this initiative would require 433,971 valid registered voter signatures – a task that would cost millions. With the electoral map increasingly becoming...

SACRAMENTO — A Democratic group on Monday filed formal complaints with the Federal Election Commission and the U.S. Department of Justice, accusing Republican presidential candidate Rudy Giuliani of violating campaign laws, including money laundering. The complaints, made by Californians for Fair Election Reform, accuse Giuliani, through his friend Paul Singer, of establishing a Missouri "front" organization to solicit illegal donations to support a ballot measure that would overturn California's winner-take-all system of allocating electoral votes. Such a change would provide the Republican presidential nominee a chance to pick up roughly 20 electoral votes by dividing them up by congressional districts....

Initiative To Change Distirbution Of Calif.'s Electoral Votes Funded By Supporter Of GOP Front-Runner (AP) SACRAMENTO, Calif. -- A top donor to presidential candidate Rudy Giuliani was the source of the one - and only - contribution to a proposed California ballot measure that would have made it much harder for Democrats to win the White House, according to a published report. The campaign to qualify the measure for next year's ballot collapsed Thursday when two of its top consultants quit, complaining they had not been told who gave the money. The donor, hedge fund giant Paul Singer, came out...

San Francisco -- Days after a controversial organization began collecting voter signatures for a ballot measure to change California's winner-take-all primary, a founder of the GOP-backed group says its major players are resigning - and the group will fold - due to lack of funding and support. "The levels of support just weren't there," said Marty Wilson, the Sacramento-based fundraiser, in a telephone interview Thursday. Wilson was among the founding members of Californians for Equal Representation, the group led by Sacramento attorney Thomas Hiltachk that intended to collect roughly 434,000 signatures to qualify the Presidential Election Reform Act for the...

Democrats have been working themselves into a lather of righteous indignation over a Republican-backed ballot measure that would, if enacted next year, change the way California allocates its presidential electoral votes. One Democratic radio ad campaign denounced it as a "partisan power grab," and the state's Democratic leaders have been echoing that line for weeks. Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean has pledged "whatever it takes within legal boundaries" to defeat the measure. Currently, the candidate with the largest popular vote is awarded all of the state's 55 electoral votes, the same system used in 47 other states. The proposed...

In the bluest of blue of California's Democratic congressional districts, long-frustrated Republican voters are suddenly and decidedly relevant. That's because in 2008 the Republican Party will scrap its traditional statewide winner-take-all California presidential primary. Instead, the GOP will select the vast majority of California presidential delegates based on who wins in each of the state's 53 separate congressional districts, including 34 held by Democrats and 19 by Republicans. California Republican Party chairman Ron Nehring said the change is an attempt to open up America's most populous state to district-by-district contests he hopes will put candidates in closer touch with voters.

Los Angeles (AP) -- Democrats determined to block a California ballot proposal that could help elect a Republican president in 2008 are launching radio ads to urge voters to snub what they call a "partisan power grab," campaign officials said Thursday. The 60-second ads, to begin running in Los Angeles and Sacramento on Friday, say the plan to change the way the state's electoral votes are awarded in presidential contests would deplete the state's clout in Washington while helping elect a Republican who would extend the Iraq war. "Help stop this scheme. Dividing California's electoral votes only hurts Californians," one...

LOS ANGELES Lawyers behind a California ballot proposal that could benefit the 2008 Republican presidential nominee have ties to a Texas homebuilder who financed attacks on Democrat John Kerry's Vietnam War record in the 2004 presidential campaign. Charles H. Bell and Thomas Hiltachk's law firm banked nearly $65,000 in fees from a California-based political committee funded almost solely by Bob J. Perry that targeted Democrats in 2006. Perry, a major Republican donor, contributed nearly $4.5 million to the group Swift Boat Veterans for Truth that made unsubstantiated but damaging attacks on Kerry three years ago. The Perry-financed committee in California,...

So if this initiative were to get on the ballot and pass, it would mean that even if the state continued to vote for a Democrat for president, as it has for the past four elections, a Republican would still get some electoral votes. Under this method, Bush would have gotten 19 in 2000 and Gore 35. In 2004, Bush would have gotten 22 electoral votes and Kerry 33. Democrats are furious over the prospect of a district by district scheme. They say that unless such a change was made in every state in the union, it would be unfair...

LOS ANGELES - Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger gave a chilly reception Thursday to a GOP-backed plan to change the way California awards electoral votes in presidential elections — a proposal critics say could tilt the outcome in favor of Republicans. "In principle, I don't like to change the rules in the middle of the game," the Republican governor told reporters. Schwarzenegger added he wasn't versed in details of the ballot proposal and stressed he wasn't taking a definitive position. But his uneasy response is likely to make it harder for supporters to build momentum and could chill fundraising. The proposed ballot...

California voters are inclined to support a proposed ballot initiative that would change how the Golden State allocates its electoral votes in presidential campaigns, but they're not yet sold on the idea, a Field Poll released today showed. Currently, California employs a winner-take-all system that awards the state's entire 55 electoral votes to the winner of the state's popular vote. Under the proposed measure, which could be on the June 2008 ballot, the presidential election would become, in essence, a congressional district-by-congressional district contest. The winner of the statewide popular vote would receive two electoral votes, but the remaining votes...

AMERICANS DON'T like the Electoral College. It's unwieldy, it seems anti-democratic and it has given rise to one of the more despicable facts of modern presidential campaigning: rather than addressing the concerns of the entire country, major-party candidates choose to do most of their post-primary campaigning in just a few battleground states - Ohio and Florida happen to be the most popular ones right now. So, in the face of a proposed California ballot measure that means to erode it, allow us to explain why the Electoral College system is worth defending - at least until someone comes up with...

So far it's only affected California, but that means it soon may be heading your way, for what begins in California often spreads across the land. Take, for example, auto emissions, clean air standards and talentless Hollywood "celebrities" In this case, it's a new strategy devised by the California Republican Party. Call it the Table Scraps strategy. -snip- What's wrong with this picture? Two things. It plays directly into the hands of the left-wing movement to ditch the Electoral College altogether, declaring the aggregate winner of the popular vote to be the president. This means that a handful of large...

aine and Nebraska allocate their electoral votes by congressional district, and that's what the proposed California ballot measure would do. Each candidate would receive one electoral vote for every congressional district he or she captured. The statewide winner would be awarded the two electoral votes representing the state's two Senate seats. The initiative was filed by Republican lawyer Thomas Hiltachk, who hopes to qualify it for the June 2008 ballot if he and his associates -- GOP figures all -- can raise enough money. If they make it and the measure were to be approved by voters, it would be...

Our way of electing presidents has always been fertile ground for mischief. But there's sensible mischief—toying with existing laws and the Constitution to reflect popular will—and then there's the other kind, which tries to rig admission to the Electoral College for strictly partisan purposes. Mischief-makers in California (Republicans) and North Carolina (Democrats) are at work on changes that would subvert the system for momentary advantage and—in ways the political world is only beginning to understand—dramatically increase the odds that a Republican will be elected president in 2008. Right now, every state except Nebraska and Maine awards all of its electoral...