Electoral College Initiative is Running out of Time

The SacBee is reporting tonight that State Election officials are saying that backers of the California electoral college initiative are at risk of missing the June ballot. Election officials said it will be difficult to finish counting the signatures in time for the January 24th state deadline.[Link]

Despite a recommendation from Secretary of State Debra Bowen that the proponents submit the signatures to the counties three weeks ago, they have yet to submit the necessary signatures. Supporters of the initiative need 433,971 signatures to qualify for the ballot. They are aiming at collecting 700,000 signature to ensure that they have enough to qualify for the ballot.[Link]

Supporters originally the aimed at turning the in the signatures by Friday December 1st. They received a late infusion of cash when the Orange County Lincoln Club made a $100,000 contribution to the initiative effort.[Link] The Republican political consultant Dave Gilliard, who is heading up the effort to qualify the initiative for the ballot, didn't return phones repeated phones calls to the SacBee on Monday.[Link]

Cross posted on Calitics

OC Lincoln Club joins fight to steal electoral votes

Capitol Alert from the Sacramento Bee is reporting that OC Lincoln Club is donating $100,000 to help qualify the Electoral College reform initiative for the ballot. [Link] The measure, if it qualifies for the June ballot and passes, would award California's electoral votes by Congressional district instead of the present winner-take-all system.

The initiative qualifying effort was dropped by its original sponsors, but in recent weeks was pickup "by a group led by Republican strategist David Gilliard." Their goal is to turn in 700,000 signatures by the end of the week.[Link]

The OC Lincoln Club joins 49th Congressional Representative Darrell Issa as the single largest contributors to the effort by the California GOP to malapportion the electoral system here in California. Here is a list of some of the donors who have contributed to this effort.

Cross posted at Calitics

Monday - Quick Hits

The Republican initiative to thart the popular will of California's voters is nearing enough signatures to qualify for June ballot. UT

Cal Fire report from October's fires strangely quiet on providing details to why the military aircraft were grounded. UT

Council to consider stricker "Mini-Dorm" ordiance today. UT

Home forclosures auction reveals the depth of housing crisis. NC Times

Former CV mayor Steve Padilla set the record straight regarding CV's budget mess. La Prensa

Frustrated Charger fans can go to this site to vent: FireNorv.net

Better Luck Next Time...

The LA Times is reporting tonight that the supporters of the scheme to change the way California awards its electoral votes are pulling the plug on their effort to qualify an initiative for the June 2008 election. [Link] So much for the GOPs attempt to game the system here in California.

UPDATE:

Here's the [Link] to the LA Times article this morning detailing the departure of two key consultants from the initiative effort.

Florida in 2000. Ohio in 2004. California in 2008?

From the folks that brought you the 2003 Recall election, now comes their latest endevor. It is an attempt to reallocate some 20 of California's 55 electoral votes to next year's GOP nominee.

Here is how it works. Quite simply their plan is to place an iniative on the ballot for next June's election. If the iniative passes ... WhamO! Califorinia's winner-take-all system of adwarding of its electoral votes, gets replaced by a new system for awarding electoral votes based on the vote for each of the state's 53 CDs and the remaining 2 electoral votes awarded to the overall winner of the statewide popular vote. How does that sound?

Great ... especially, when you consider that George Bush lost California by over 2 million votes to Al Gore and then as a "wartime president" turned around lost California a second time to John Kerry by 1.2 million. Why try and nominate a candidate that would appeal to a majority of Californians? When you can rely on good 'ol malapportionment to do part of the job for you.

It is bad enough that California has only 55 electoral votes, when you consider that its population is approximately equal to the following states: Connecticut, Iowa, Mississippi, Kansas, Arkansas, Utah, Nevada, New Mexico, West Virginia, Nebraska, Idaho, Maine, New Hampshire, Hawaii, Rhode Island, Montana, Delaware, South Dakota, North Dakota, Alaska, Vermont, Wyoming and the District of Columbia, which together have 101 electoral votes.

I guess this is what the modern GOP has come to. If you can't disenfranchise voters (i.e. Florida 2000), or rigged the election (i.e. Ohio 2004), then their is always the tried and true way of malapportionment. Well at least we have done away with the 3/5s rule.