The electoral system by which we nominate presidents is already deeply flawed. By electing presidential electors by state and granting each state an extra two delegates for its number of senators, the system favors the least populous and rural states. Recently, that has meant extra electoral votes for Republicans in presidential elections. Now a shadowy group of Republicans, funded by a backer of Rudolph Giuliani, want to change the way California, the most populous state, chooses its presidential electors. The initiative, dubbed the Presidential Election Reform Act, would go on the ballot in June 2008 when California chooses primary candidates. The measure would eliminate the statewide winner-take-all system of choosing presidential electors. Instead, it would divvy up electors based on which candidates wins each congressional district. By this system, California's 55 electoral votes, which went to John Kerry in 2004, would have been divided up, with Kerry winning 33 and Bush 22. If the change were put in place for every state, the Republican gain in California would probably be canceled out by Democratic gains in erstwhile Republican states like Texas. But if California alone were to change its system of choosing electors, the Republicans would pick up twenty-plus electors without having to change their politics or their candidates. It's the perfect deal. As has been learned this week, the seed money to put the initiative ballot--$175,000--did not come from a California Republican, but from a shadowy Missouri operative, lawyer Charles "Chep" Hurth III, the city attorney for New Haven, Mo. Hurth, who has contributed to Giuliani's campaign, recently set up Take Initiative America, which is funding the California initiative. In the 2004 election, Hurth was the mover behind Choices for America, a group that helped fund Ralph Nader's attempt to get on the presidential ballot. As the San Francisco Chronicle reports, Hurth has also been behind another mysterious group named First Class Funding, and has worked with Utah Republican Patrick Byrne, the CEO of Overstock.com and a funder of the Swift Boat Veteran campaign against John Kerry. --John B. Judis