Doug Kendall: "California voters can't change the 2008 election rules on their own"
Doug Kendall, executive director of the Community Rights Council, has an article in Slate that argues the proposed California referendum to proportionately allocate the state's electoral votes is unconstitutional.
The U.S. Constitution prohibits a ballot measure that would trump a state legislature's chosen method of appointing electors. In Article II, Section 1, the Constitution declares that electors shall be appointed by states "in such manner as the Legislature thereof may direct." That's legislature. California's could scrap its current winner-take-all approach and adopt a district-by-district system for allocating electors (as only Maine and Nebraska currently do). But the voters—whom the initiative supporters have turned to because they don't have the support of the Democratic-controlled legislature—cannot do this on their own.
The argument is further fleshed out on the CRC's web site.