By Brian Leubitz
Gov. Brown just signed AB 459, Jerry Hill’s bill to join the national popular vote compact:
Gov. Jerry Brown signed legislation this morning committing California to an interstate compact to award electoral votes to the presidential candidate who wins the most votes nationwide.
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For too long, presidential candidates have ignored California and our issues while pandering exclusively to the battleground states,” the bill’s author, Assemblyman Jerry Hill, D-San Mateo, said in a written statement. “A national popular vote will force candidates to actually campaign in California and talk about our issues.” (SacBee)
Basically, the Compact would become effective when enough votes in the electoral college are bound by the compact. Before today’s signature, 8 states and DC signed up for 74 votes committed, California’s 55 gives a total of 129. If the remaining 142 votes commit, we could be looking a vastly different political landscape.
The National Popular Vote bill has been enacted by DC, HI, IL,CA, NJ, MD, MA, VT, and WA. These 9 jurisdictions possess 132 electoral votes– 49% of the 270 necessary to bring the law into effect.
what is there to prevent a state which (a) has committed to this, (b) voted differently than the popular vote majority, and (c) is governed by the opposing party, from changing the law in that state just before midnight on the day before the electoral college votes, throwing the election into utter confusion?