Pinkus told L3, the Young Professionals group of the American Jewish Committee, that Gore received 77 percent of the national Jewish vote in the recent election, a percentage point more than President Bill Clinton received in 1996. She said that Walter Mondale received 67 percent in 1984; Michael Dukakis received 73 percent in 1988, and Clinton received 68 percent in 1992.

She said that Gore's historic choice of Sen. Joseph Lieberman as the first Jewish vice presidential running mate "did not come into play negatively in this election." She said three percent of the voters said they would not vote for Gore because of the Lieberman choice. At the same time, three percent of the voters said they would not vote for Texas Gov. George Bush because his choice was Dick Cheney. On the positive side, 22 percent of Gore's voters said they favored him because of Lieberman, while 26 percent of Bush's voters said they backed him because of Cheney.

Because of their high turnout, Jewish voters accounted for approximately four percent of the votes nationwide -- about double the percentage of Jews in the overall population. 

The pollster participated in a panel Dec. 11 at the Palomino Restaurant in La Jolla with political writer John Marelius of the San Diego Union Tribune and UCSD Prof. Samuel Popkin. 

Asked what effect abolishing the electoral college would have on the importance of the Jewish vote, Popkin said it would tend to strengthen it slightly. "A Democrat would campaign more in California and in New York under a popular vote system than he does now," Popkin said. "But let me remind you that there is no way in the world we are going to get this changed because you need two-thirds of the states to go along with it (amending the constitution) and there are at least 17-18 states (with small populations) that would be devastated...."

Marelius said he found it fun to contemplate covering a presidential campaign in which winners were selected by popular rather than electoral votes. "A campaign trip would be New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, Dallas, Miami," he said. "Under such a system every political reporter could get a trip to every major ballpark during an election. How bad would that be?"
-- Donald H. Harrison