Sierra Club opposes electoral initiative currently circulating

December 2007

Have you been asked to sign a ballot initiative that would apportion the California electoral votes between the candidates rather than continue the winner-take-all method currently used? Although it might sound fair on first glance, this method will provide a Republican advantage unless it is adopted by all states.

Sierra Club opposes this initiative proposal. The Golden State, like 47 other states, awards all of its electoral votes to the winner of the state’s popular vote. The initiative would award one electoral vote to the leading vote-getter in each congressional district, as is currently done in Maine and Nebraska.

While reforming the electoral college is a very legitimate topic for debate at the national level, this particular initiative is a transparently partisan ploy undertaken by Republican political operatives who are trying to offset the Democratic advantage in California without doing anything to address the Republican advantage in other big winner-take-all states such as Texas.

We urge our members not to sign petitions for the measure which is entitled “Presidential Electors. Political Party Nomination and Election by Congressional District.”

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