Electoral College: any changes coming?

[zorkpolitics]

I think we need to have at least one ongoing discussion of the Electoral College.  
For this thread, I'm interested in learning of any states  that are considering changes in how they allocate their Electoral votes.
Currently two systems are in use, 48 states use the Winner take all method, while NB and ME use the District method (1 EV to the winner of each Congressional District, and 2 to the statewide winner).
Are any other states considering a change?

Does anyone know of  a web site that tracks governor and state legislature control?  For political gain, I could imagine a state controlled by one party, but which usually votes for the opposite party for President  (like LA?)  might go to the District, or even proportional, method of Electoral Vote allocation, to be sure some votes go to the each candidate?
Has any big state, like CA ever considered proportional allocation?  

[zorkpolitics]

Good idea to start the discussion!

The site you are looking for is http://www.ncsl.org/

More specifically
http://www.ncsl.org/ncsldb/elect98/partcomp.cfm?yearsel=2004

Thanks for the link to the site, very helpful.  Since the 2000 election not a single state has changed its Electoral Vote allocation method.  Not surprisingly interest was greatest in 2001 (28 states), less so in 2002 (16 states), and the least in 2003 (7 states).  The states have considered 3 methods:
Winner take all to District elections: 25 states
Winner take all to Proportional to state vote: 4 states
District method to Winner take all: 1 state (NE)
Several small states did pass resolutions to Congress affirming their support of the Electoral College.  
Interestingly, no big state has considered a relatively easy way to effectively convert the Electoral College into a ratification of the popular vote without a Constitutional amendment.  The most interesting proposal I've seen is for states, in particular large states, to pass a law that would allocate all that states Electoral votes to the National Popular Vote winner, but the law would only become effective when sufficient other states had passed a similar law, guaranteeing that 270 EV would be allocated to the Popular Vote winner.  As few as 11 states could do this.

[zorkpolitics]

The only problem I can foresee is if a 3rd party challenger garners enough electoral votes to throw the election into the House of Representatives.  I can't fathom what issue would split the country so much but a situation like 1968 will probably happen again.  

A third party split of the EC is much more unlikely now than 1968.  From 1948 to 1968, 3 Regional (Southern) candidates won EV, all running against civil rights position of the Democratic Party.   This was not unexpected because the Dmeocratic party was a unlikely coalition of post Civil War anti-union conservative Southern, and pro-union, Northern liberals.  Thus a Conservative, Southern candidate could easily split off the region (Strom Thurmonsd 39 EV in 1948, Harry Byrd 15 EV in 1960, and George Wallace 46 in 1968) .

Today the South is conservative and part of the Conservative Republican coalition, and the nation has realigned into a Conservative, non-urban, Southern, Mountain, great Plains coalition vs. the urban, Western, Upper Midwest, Northeast Liberal coalition.  There is no longer a region to bolt the national parties.  Since you win an entire state to win EV, even strong third party candidates will have no direct effect, though of course they can preferentially "take votes away" from one party.  Indeed, since 1968 3 third party candidates have gotten more votes than the Southern Conservatives above, but none have won even a single EV (1980 John Anderson 7%, 1992 Ross Perot  19%, and 1996 Ross Perot 8%)

[zorkpolitics]

i'd say that the senate votes of the EC should be cut out.

it's not fair that WY and DE, etc get triple the representation they should in the EC, but larger states the extra two is a drop in the bucket.  Also, states with more than 20 house seats/ev's should be required to split them in some way, either by district or proportion or something.
i think that'd change things for the better.

A few comments:  The purpose of this thread is to see if any changes are coming to the EC:  That is are there any changes in the way a state selects electors?
I do not think there is any realistic chance the EC will be changed by a constitutional amendment, since the small states perceive the current system as favorable to them.  So lets not even bother to make suggestions that are unrealistic, like: senate votes of the EC should be cut out.

BTW, I disagree that the EC is unfair.  There are many electoral systems use on the planet, and
any electoral system is fair as long as all the candidates know the rules and compete under those rules

[zorkpolitics]

The Constitution mandates a census every 10 yrs and reapportionment follows.  In general, its unusual if a state loses or gains more than 2 EV from a census, so there is not too big a concern about waiting 10 yrs.