Stories you shouldn’t miss:
1. Governor Jerry Brown signed a bill into law yesterday that will award all of California’s Electoral College votes to the presidential candidate who wins the most votes nationwide — if enough other states agree to do the same, the Chron reports. The new law is designed to increase California’s influence on presidential races. Currently, presidential candidates usually ignore California unless they come here for fund-raising.
The law also is intended to avoid a repeat of the 2000 presidential election when Bush defeated Gore even though Gore got more votes nationally. However, the new law, which awards all of California’s votes to the nationwide popular vote winner regardless of how that person fares here, will not take effect until states with 270 total Electoral College votes adopt the same rules. Currently, nine states, including California, with 132 total Electoral College votes have done so.
