Republican political consultant Dave Gilliard, who is spearheading the Electoral College initiative effort, has insisted for the past month that local elections officials could speed up the random counting process so the initiative could qualify for the June election by a Jan. 24 state deadline.
But such an assumption may be unreasonable because county registrars already have committed workers to prepare for the Feb. 5 election, said Stephen Weir, registrar of voters in Contra Costa County and president of the California Association of Clerks and Election Officials.
Counties are slammed with duties that include mailing ballots to overseas voters, preparing ballot guides, training poll workers and gearing up for absentee voting that begins Jan. 7. At the same time, many county election offices are juggling staff vacation time around the holidays.
“They're risking it, honestly,” Weir said of Gilliard's initiative effort. “They're risking it. They're up against a tidal wave of programming. ... You can't miss deadlines when you have a live election going.”
Democrats have charged that the initiative is a ploy to ensure Republicans obtain 20 or more electoral votes in California, a state no GOP presidential candidate has won since George H.W. Bush in 1988. But Republicans behind the initiative said it would force presidential candidates to visit California more often and give more voters a voice in the presidential outcome.
Gilliard and other GOP consultants took over the initiative drive in late October after earlier proponents abandoned the proposal due to a lack of funding and a questionable donation received from a Rudy Giuliani supporter.