No, not dead, just delayed. They kept pushing their luck on turning in the signatures and now have conceded that they will not make the June ballot. (Got this via email, but Meyer's blog has technical problems, will update with link later)
The initiative to change how California's Electoral College votes are awarded in the race for the White House will not appear on the June statewide ballot, according to campaign officials.
In a brief statement e-mailed to reporters this afternoon, the California Counts political team said they are now shooting for the November ballot after being unable to gather enough signatures in time for this week's drop-dead June deadline.
"Due to the tight calendar we are operating under and the challenge of raising money and gathering signatures during the Holiday season," says the statement, "we understand that submitting signatures and having them counted in time to make the June ballot, is no longer a realistic goal."
They are now shooting for the November ballot. However, like Meyers notes that there are two major problems with that strategy. 1) The turnout will not be as favorable for the Republicans as it would have been in June. 2) If it were to pass there would be a court challenge over whether it would count for the election occurring on the same day.
We have killed it twice now and we will for a third time if necessary.
[UPDATE] 3:20 pm Here is the SacBee breaking story that has a crucial piece of information:
California Counts has until Feb. 4 to submit their signatures, a deadline representing six months after the initiative was approved for circulation. Gilliard's statement said his group had collected more than 500,000 signatures; political strategists believe they need about 700,000 to ensure they have enough valid ones to meet a state threshold.
"CalCounts will continue with its fundraising and signature drive because we believe Californians deserve the right to vote on this important initiative to reform the Electoral College and to make our state count again in presidential elections," Gilliard said in the statement.
There has been a lot of confusion over when the dirty tricksters needed to turn in their signatures. The hard deadline was Feb 5th, but that is also when they need to be certified by, so they obviously had to turn them in before then. The County Registrars need time to do the random counts and if that failed, to do a full count.
They are busy preparing for the primary, thus can't be devoting a lot of resources to a count. The dirty tricksters pushed it so far that it is now impossible to get certified in time for the June primary. But if they get the 200,000 more in by February, it will make the November ballot.
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