About California's electoral votes...

[Andromeda]

would Arnold Schwarzenegger have control over California's electoral votes now that he's governor and if he endorses Bush (and he probably will) does he alone determine who gets California's electoral votes, which is a pretty good chunk of the election pie or do the voters decide?

This is confusing to me because I have heard different answers to this question. What are the facts?

[arcane1]

1. I know the feeling...

I've had different answers to the same question

:shrug:

[SoCalDem]

2. I think that the state legislature is actually able to "appoint" electors

(remember florida's "special electors" in case Gore won the Supreme court challenge?)

The normal way it works is that whichever candidate prevails, has His/Her electors attend the session that actually validates the popular vote.

I don't think a governor can do much about it...except make the whole process so screwed up, that no one really knows what's going on (see Florida)

[Andromeda]

4. At least Califfornia's legislature ...

is controlled by the Democrats. I don't want to think about what could happen if the Republicans controlled it.

If the Supremes hadn't stepped in and stopped the counting of the votes during the 2000 debacle, the Florida legislature would have given their electoral votes to Bush. The fix was in and it was a lose-lose situation for Gore.

When Arnold won the recall election I felt sick to my stomach even though I wasn't surprised.

Your reply has made me feel a little better though. :)

[Yupster]

3. Here's the Constitution

Article II Section 1

"Each state shall appoint, in such manner as the legislature thereof may direct,a number of electors ..."

Note there is not a Constitutional need for an election at all for president, and early in our country's history, some states did not hold an election at all for president. The legislature just appointed its electors. South Carolina did not hold a popular vote for president until 1872.

The state legislatures were incredibly powerful, maybe the most powerful part of the government in our nation's early history. By their power to appoint senators, they were able to have their views listened to in Washington. By the Tenth Amendment, they were in charge of all governmental affairs except those few powers specifically mentioned in the Constitution as belonging to another branch of government.

There was a remnant of this power seen in the Florida election dispute when the Republican-dominated legislature of Florida announced that if the courts ruled against them in the Bush-Gore dispute, they would simply appoint their own slate of electors and send them to Washington.

[Andromeda]

5. Thanks for posting that.

Whew! I'm glad California's legislature is Democrat-controlled. When either party has had control of a state legislature, any state in past elections, I wonder if any appointed electors actually superceded the voters in favor of their own candidate? We know that would have happened in Florida but what about other states?

There are a lot of issues with the electoral college that I have found unfair, even undemocratic. I think they should just do away with it altogether.