Wednesday, September 5, 2007

Cut To The Chase

The latest news on California's attempt to slice-and-dice its presidential electoral votes is a bit clearer on the details. According to the San Diego Union-Tribune, the proposal, which would allocate the state's 55 electoral votes according to congressional district rather than by the winner-take-all system historically employed, would only take effect if a number of states equal in electoral votes to the number required to win (270) did likewise.
I'm still not sure 1) That this wouldn't be shot down in the Federal courts, and 2) that it's not just a bad band-aid decision, and if that's what's wanted, it needs to be done through a constitutional amendment changing to a parliamentary system. This would also allow for the powers of the Judiciary and Executive to be limited, presumably ending their dominance of our federal system, where Congress has become a glorified debating society and focus for national ire.
Personally, I think neither of the options discussed above have much chance of success. The "California initiative" will, I believe, be declared unconstitutional in Federal court, and I don't believe a parliamentary amendment has a ghost of a chance of being passed by 3/4 of the states .....as I have a difficult time seeing just about any amendment adopted in our times.

No comments: