State Senate approves ‘popular-vote president’

July 14th, 2011, 12:31 pm

The state Senate on Thursday approved a measure that could lead to U.S. presidents being elected by a popular vote rather than by the electoral college, should enough other states pass similar measures.

The measure was passed 23-15. I’ll update this with the party breakdown once I get it. The Assembly previously approved the measure 51-21, largely on the strength of Democratic support.

The bill, which now goes to Gov. Jerry Brown, would award all of the state’s 55 electoral votes to the winner of the national popular vote.

Seven states and the District of Columbia, with a combined 77 electoral votes, have approved similar measures so far. The law will not be activated until states totaling 270 electoral votes – the majority needed to elect a president – have such a provision on the books.

The state-by-state effort is designed to circumvent the constitutional mandate for that the electoral college choose the president, since it appears unlikely Congress will amend that provision.

The most obvious argument for a popular vote are the three presidents who were elected despite being out-polled by their opponent: George W. Bush, Rutherford B. Hayes, and Benjamin Harrison. All three happen to all be Republicans. In all but two states, the winner among the state’s voters receives all the state’s electoral votes – a system that led to these three anomalies.

The bill’s principal author, Assemblyman Jerry Hill, D-South San Francisco, also points out that while presidential candidates are quick to visit California to raise funds, they do little campaigning here and once elected pay more attention to swing states. If they won purely based on the popular vote, they’d likely spend more time – and campaign money – in the state.

Republican opponents point out that the states to pass a National Popular Vote bill so far are all controlled by Democrats, and say that the provision would strengthen Democrats’ hand because they could focus voter drives in heavily urbanized areas – which are typically blue.

“That means that Republicans within the L.A. media market will have a much harder time getting elected,â€