Maryland governor signs law changing electoral college vote allocation News
Maryland governor signs law changing electoral college vote allocation

[JURIST] Maryland Governor Martin O'Malley signed off on legislation [SB 634 materials] Tuesday that will award Maryland's ten votes in the US Electoral College [NARA materials] to the national popular vote winner in presidential elections, instead of the recipient of the most votes in Maryland. The legislation will only take effect, however, if a majority of the states representing the total 538 electoral votes adopt similar laws. The bill's sponsor, state Senator Jamie Raskin, told AP that the move to a popular vote system "will reawaken politics in every part of the country," even Maryland, a state presidential candidates usually sidestep because of the belief that it will always vote for the Democratic candidate.

The Maryland Senate [General Assembly website] passed the measure [JURIST report] in March by a vote of 29-17. Other states are also considering the plan as a way to avoid a situation where a candidate wins the popular vote but loses the election, as happened with Democrat Al Gore in 2000. AP has more.

THIS DAY @ LAW

China passes current constitution

On December 4, 1982, the Fifth National People's Congress passed the current Constitution of China.

FDR established Federal Alcohol Control Administration

On December 4, 1933, President Franklin Roosevelt established the Federal Alcohol Control Administration (FACA) by executive order under the National Industrial Recovery Act just prior to the formal end of Prohibition. FACA was charged with guiding legitimate wineries and distilleries under a system based on brewers' voluntary codes of fair competition. It effectively vanished from history after just twenty months, when President Roosevelt in August 1935 signed the Federal Alcohol Administration (FAA) Act, lodging alcohol regulation exclusively with the US Treasury Department, where it currently remains under the jurisdiction of the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau, formerly the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF).