Gov. Jerry Brown signed a bill that would award all of California's 55 Electoral College votes to
the winner of the national popular vote in presidential elections Monday.
The movement by a group called National Popular Vote aims to prevent a repeat of 2000, when Democrat Al Gore won the popular vote but Republican George W. Bush won the electoral vote. The
proposed change would ensure the winner of the national popular vote becomes president.
With Brown's signature Monday, California became the eighth state to sign on, giving the effort 132 of the 270 electoral votes it needs to take effect.
California and most other states currently have winner-take-all systems that give all the electoral votes to the candidate who wins the most votes in that state.
Peninsula assembly member Jerry Hill sponsored the bill. He said California is ignored in most general presidential elections and as a result, important issues to California are given "short shrift in the national discourse."
"For too long, presidential candidates have ignored California and our issues while pandering exclusively to the battleground states," Hill said. "A national popular vote will force candidates to actually campaign in California and talk about our issues."
