The New Yorker says the Electoral College bill is a bad idea.
In its weekly Comment, writer Hendrik Hertzberg criticizes an initiative to split California's electors among Congressional District as an attempt by Republicans to get "an unearned, Ohio-size gift of electoral votes."
Hertzberg says California's GOP is not alone, noting that North Carolina Democrats "enthusiastically took up a bill to do the same mischief."
The grab would be smaller—it would appropriate perhaps three or four of North Carolina's fifteen electoral votes for the Democrats—but the hands would be just as dirty.
If the bill passes in California, it could tilt the national election to Republicans. Even if every state made the change, Hertzberg writes that it would just reduce the 10 battleground states to 35 battleground Congressional Districts.
The bill passed the Senate and made it past a second reading in the House before being unexpectedly re-referred to committee on Monday, likely signaling a last-minute decision to scuttle it.
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