With homage to Mark Twain and his wry remarks about those who declare death too soon, the initiative to change how California’s votes for the White House are counted is back… and may have enough cash to gather the needed signatures in only three weeks.

The initiative, which received nationwide attention this summer, would mean that California’s 55 electoral votes would almost all be doled out by the presidential winner in each of the state’s congressional districts. And given the wide swath of GOP red in inland California, that could give the Republican nominee as many electoral votes here as could be won in Ohio.

Longtime GOP attorney Tom Hiltachk, the author of the initiative, pulled out of the campaign several weeks ago. But it’s now been revived by a group of conservatives that includes anti-tax crusader Lew Uhler and former 2003 recall campaigner Tony Andrade. Andrade submitted a similar initiative for circulation a few weeks before Hiltachk, but says he’s put his own version “on ice,” and is now focused on Hiltachk’s version.

In a phone interview this afternoon, Andrade said that the campaign has amassed close to $3 million to get the roughly 434,000 valid signatures needed to qualify for the June statewide ballot. He said that while volunteer signature gatherers are getting a buck per signature, paid gatherers could end up getting as much as $4 per signature by the time the dust has settled.

If that’s true, even the narrow window left to qualify for the 2008 primary ballot could be made. Backers say they’ve been told they may need to have their signatures submitted to elections officials by as soon as mid-November.

So who’s put up the cash? Andrade says that $2 million has come from what he calls a “national group,” but declined to elaborate on their identity. The rest of the money, he says, comes from various social conservatives… including some who helped bankrolled the signature gathering for the 2003 recall of Governor Gray Davis.

If all of this comes to pass (and Andrade says the new cash-infused effort began yesterday), the Democrats will again take aim at what they claim are the partisan fingerprints on the plan.

“They’re back,” said Democratic strategist Chris Lehane in an email this afternoon. “This Freddie Krueger of initiatives is back and once again, it appears the shadowy conservative forces behind this electoral hijacking are trying to hide where the money is coming from.”

But political consultant Chris Wysocki, who has just signed on to the effort (and is also a veteran of the 2003 recall) says there will be full disclosure once the new campaign is up and running. “Californians have a right to know who’s behind it,” he said.

And perhaps more intriguing for political junkies: Wysocki says that even if the initiative has to wait until November… the same ballot with voters picking the next president… it could still take effect in 2008, because the Electoral College doesn’t meet until December.