Electoral College v. California

A new bill breezed through the california assembly that would put CA in cahoots with other states seeking to change the way presidents are elected. the LA times wrote about it here.

Seeking to force presidential candidates to pay attention to California's 15.5 million voters, state lawmakers on Tuesday jumped aboard a new effort that would award electoral votes to the candidate who wins the popular vote nationwide.

As it is now, California grants its Electoral College votes to the candidate who wins the popular vote in the state. Practically speaking, that means Democrat-dominated California spends the fall presidential campaign on the sidelines as candidates focus on the states — mostly in the upper Midwest — that are truly up for grabs.

When states possessing a majority of electoral votes join the compact, it will activate and all will agree to give their electoral votes to the candidate for president receiving the majority of the popular vote nationwide. this would have yielded Big Al the presidency in 2000.

Its a clever workaround for the electoral college bug where a candidate can win without an actual majority. It is a sneaky way to avoid the conventional reading of the constitution but seems to me to be entirely constitutional as states can award their electors as they wish (i think). this is an exciting new development. what do you all think?
[hat tip to evin for forwarding me the article]