California seeks Electoral College reform

?Reform the Electoral College ? You can make a difference!? That?s the clarion call of California political activist and bounty hunter Bob Burton. When he?s not catching bad guys, or writing books, including ?The Bounty Hunter,? Bob is State Chairman of the Electoral Reform California Committee.

Mr. Burton and his supporters are after bigger game this time.?Their stated mission:? ?We are going to change California politics and return the power back to the people!??Their means to that noble end is an initiative filed with the California Attorney General on May 10, 2007.

The California initiative, if passed, would do away with the current system, where the winner of the popular vote in California takes all 55 electors, and replace it with one where the presidential candidate who wins the popular vote in each Congressional District gets the elector for that district.?The two Senate seat electors would be awarded by statewide popular vote.

The purpose of this latest exercise in California?s penchant for direct democracy is to slay the evil dragon of the Electoral College system ??namely, the so-called ?winner-take-all? provision for awarding electoral votes.? Curiously, this evil dragon is not a creature of the Constitution, but of the political parties and the states.?Therefore, killing this provision does not require amending the Constitution, which would be a long and laborious process.

Mr. Burton?s fellow author and political activist, Tony Andrade, is a passionate proponent of the Electoral Reform California Initiative.?He is famous (or infamous) for his role in the successful recall of then-Gov. Gray Davis and his replacement by Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Whether this latest reform attempt actually gets on the ballot and gets passed by the citizens of California remains to be seen.?However, its siren-like appeal has already lured the California Republican Party on to the rocks of electoral reform.

In the 2008 California Republican Presidential Primary, ?winner-take-all? will not apply. Instead, a version of proportional representation, keyed to Congressional district votes will become part of the delegate mix.

California has long been the land of colorful, controversial, even quirky politics. This time, though, it is not Gulliver, with a whopping 55 electoral votes, leading the charge for Electoral College reform.?That distinction belongs to California?s relatively Lilliputian counterparts, Maine (4 electoral votes) and Nebraska (5).?They dropped the winner-take-all rule several years ago, with no ill effects.

Moves to reform or even abolish the ?antiquated, anti-democratic? Electoral College system of selecting our presidents are nothing new, of course.?In fact, they?re nearly as old as the original Constitution itself.?

For example, in 1804, the Twelfth Amendment, intended to ?fix? the Electoral problems of 1796 and 1800, was ratified by the states.?Other amendments followed, all designed to resolve flaws, substantive and procedural, in picking our presidents.

All that said, the oft-revered and oft-reviled Electoral College system continues to work, warts and all.?Attempts to reform it have been relatively successful.?Attempts to abolish it have so far failed, largely for fear of its alternatives.

Thomas B. Vaughn is an instructor at Motlow College and co-host of the radio show ?Viewpoints,? which airs on WCPI 91.3 FM.