Republicans Try to Change California Election Rules

Howard Dean says some of the Republican operatives in California working on the plan include some of the 2004 Swift Boaters who helped sink Vietnam veteran John Kerry's last Presidential campaign.

Even California's Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, a fellow Republican, says he finds the new Republican plan odd. Photo courtesy: California Governor's Office

(SALEM, Ore.) - Democrats all over the nation are steaming over a Republican plan for a new election system in California. Howard Dean says the word about this new plan is spreading, and he is urging members of his part to do everything possible to keep the next presidential election honest.

"Apparently that's the Republicans' answer to our work in California. If they have their way, this reliably "blue" state won't be so blue in 2008. Faced with a strong Democratic presence, If they get what they're after, it could cost us the White House."

Dean says some of the Republican operatives in California working on the plan include some of the 2004 Swift Boaters who helped sink Vietnam veteran John Kerry's last Presidential campaign.

"They are working on a proposition for the June ballot that would essentially hand over 20 of the state's electoral votes before the elections even begin next November," Dean Said.

Most Americans agree that electoral reform is a good thing, but critics say this proposition doesn't even come close to an honest effort. Instead they claim it's designed for just one thing: to make California the only big state in the country to break up its electoral votes, handing the White House back over to the Republicans.

Dean and others from the Democratic party say they hope voters visit democrats.org/DirtyTricks to get involved and help avoid another election theft from the party that represents the common person.

California, like 47 other states, awards all of its electoral votes to the presidential candidate who wins the most votes. In the last four elections, all of California's electoral votes have gone to the Democratic nominee.

Republicans are accused of wanting to change the rules to award one electoral vote for each Congressional district a presidential candidate wins. In 2004, that would have given George Bush 20 of John Kerry's 55 votes.

The odd thing is that Republicans aren't proposing to do this in Texas, or Florida, or Ohio, or any of the traditional large states that the Republicans won in 2004, they are only interested in California.

Dean says it doesn't amount to electoral reform, "It's a blatant power grab. Even Arnold Schwarzenegger is against the proposal, saying: 'I feel like, if you're all of a sudden in the middle of the game start changing the rules, it's kind of odd... It almost feels like a loser's mentality, saying, I cannot win with those rules. So let me change the rules.'"

This is going to be a very interesting election.