http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f ... K4CSQ1.DTL
An idea gaining traction with several state legislatures including New York's and California's is to assign all the state's electoral college votes to the winner of the national popular vote, thus circumventing the entire electoral college process. It is especially appealling to CA and NY because they don't really get candidates pandering to them despite their large populations because the races there have not been close recently. I think this is a good idea, not the best possible one, but one that could certainly have an impact on the 2008 or 2012 election.