Wha tthe heck?

Under a bill passed by the Assembly, California would join an interstate compact in which states would agree to cast their electoral votes not for the winner in their jurisdictions but for the winner nationwide. Proponents say that would force candidates to broaden their reach to major population centers such as California.

The bill is part of a 3-month-old movement driven by a Bay Area lawyer and a Stanford computer science professor. The same 888-word bill is pending in four other states and is expected to be introduced in every state by January, its sponsors say. The legislation would not take effect until enough states passed such laws to make up a majority of the Electoral College votes — a minimum of 13 states, depending on population.

"This is a bill that would allow California to be able to play a role in presidential elections," said Barry Fadem, the Lafayette, Calif., lawyer spearheading the drive. Now, because the state is largely ignored, he said, "A vote in California is not equal to a vote in Ohio, and everyone would concede that."

Wow. What a monumentally stupid bill. If this goes through, a California vote has even less weight because a voter in Texas has as much weight for California's electoral votes as does a voter that actually lives in the state -- and the Texan's vote counts for Texas, too! If they're interested in empowering what are admittedly relatively unimportant votes in California, then go the Maine route where electoral votes are divided by district rather than the whole state. Or dole them out in proportion to the vote within the state.

I gotta give the legislature credit, though. This bill empowers Republicans (under this, Bush would have gotten California's electoral votes in 2004) but it was Democrats that pushed it through and Republicans that oppose it.