Renewed effort by GOP to change vote process

The California Republican Party has revived its effort to change how California apportions its votes for presidents.

Rather than the current winner-take-all system, the GOP has revived an initiative campaign to allocate the votes based on returns in Congressional districts _ a plan that fell apart earlier this year when the financing of it fell short.

Now, the FlashReport says, a group calling itself "California Counts Committee" and is reviving the effort to qualify a measure for the June ballot.

The report said the fundraising effort is headed by Anne Dunsmore of Capital Campaigns, with Ed Rollins serving as senior advisor and spokesman for the effort. Also backing the effort is National Tax Limitation Committee President Lew Uhler is playing a key role.

The group said it will be able to keep the 110,000 signatures gathered for the earlier effort and needs about 540,000 more to qualify for the ballot.

California Democrats are already organizing the fight the new effort.

Party Chair Art Torres is calling it a Halloween trick.

"Just in time for Halloween, phantom GOP forces are attempting to bring the electoral power grab initiative back from the dead. The Republicans may mistakenly think that Californians have a short memory, but this latest crass attempt to rig the presidential election is downright insulting.

“The Republicans’ first attempt with the initiative intended to rig the Presidential election became so entangled in its web of deception and fraud that it finally collapsed under its own weight. It appears as if whoever is truly driving this latest effort is making the same costly mistake."