Legislation that would change California's adherence to the electoral college system of national politics is making progress. AB459 would give California's 55 electoral college votes to whichever candidate won the national popular vote, instead of giving all 55 votes to the candidate that won a majority of California's districts. States that pass similar legislation would agree through a compact to do the same. The laws wouldn't go into effect until states representing 270 electoral votes, a majority and the number needed to elect a president, agree to the compact.
This approach avoids the nearly impossible process of amending the Constitution while still affecting the way we elect our nation's leader. Thus far Illinois, Hawaii, New Jersey and Maryland - with a total of 73 electoral votes - have passed the legislation proposed by National Popular Vote, a nonprofit based in Silicon Valley and founded by Stanford Professor John Koza, who came up with the idea. Adding California's 55 votes to that tally would go a long way to reaching the 270 needed to put the compact into action.
Read more about it here and here.
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