I Hate Ballot Propositions

 

I live in one of those states where almost anyone, with a little effort, can put almost any question to the voters to get a yes or no answer to a proposed change in the law. This time around there are 12 such measures here dealing with everything from digital privacy to allowing felons to vote, and from rent control to dialysis clinics.

Propositions, in the broadest sense, have the goal of doing what state legislators could not or would not do, or simply injecting fairness into an unfair situation. Most sound good, but they can be confusing, and the voter has to be careful. Many start with what seems like a worthy cause, but if you dig in a little bit, you find that the fine print includes zingers that protect certain institutions from being included or change the law in a not-so-good way. Yes can sometimes mean no, and vice versa. More often than not, a proposition is on the ballot to “fix” an unintended consequence of another ballot  measure that was approved five or 10 years ago or more. And finally, you have to read about who the major supporters and campaign funders of a measure are, and you say to yourself, yeah, no wonder they wanted THAT done.

This year, it hurts a little, because many of us are in a hurry to return our ballot or vote early where it’s permitted, but all those down-ballot items take time, and woe betide you if you’re voting in person and are stuck in line behind someone who hasn’t decided ahead of time how they’re going to vote on all that stuff. If you don’t vote on these things, you are leaving possible life-changing decisions up to others. An approved proposition may someday come back to bite you in a place you weren’t expecting. The sensible ones can lose and the crazy ones might win, or they may be challenged in court.

To be fair, there are positives about propositions. Sometimes a state legislature and the executive branch are dominated by the wrong party or people. A legislature can pass crazy laws under the radar, and with propositions, at least there is usually healthy debate about an issue, so we get educated. Even so, we have to put up with all the TV ads, and the better-funded side in a proposition campaign usually has more of them.

Maybe my real problem is, I’m just tired of all the extra noise that propositions add. I just want to tell all the ballot measure partisans, hey everyone, I know you mean well, but can’t we deal with all this a little later? In this election, I’ve got other fish to fry, like maybe the future of the republic.

 

 

I Want It Done Yesterday

It never fails. The power goes out for tens of thousands, or hundreds of thousands, or even millions – it doesn’t matter what the size of the thing is – and frustrated folks start taking it out on the evil power companies for not working hard enough to get the lights back on.

But let’s be clear. In terms of the geographic scope of the damage, the results of the Eastern weather phenomena this month rival what happened after the Japanese earthquake. Power line crews had to be brought in from all over the country to help with repairs. Some people had power restored pretty quickly; others still don’t have it. Some are without it while neighbors in the next block have it back. All recipes for frustration. As soon as the power line techs get the lights back on, they’re heroes. What were they when the customers were still in the dark? Can’t we cut the power companies a little slack in these situations? Easy for me to say, of course, as I sit in a heated home typing this.

Cut to this past week’s elections. A friend complained about how slow election officials were in counting ballots in a close congressional race and wondered who was running the show. Perhaps he forgot that in order to make things more convenient for people to vote, the absentee voting privilege was widely extended some time back. Here in California, many people waited till the last minute to return those ballots, not because they were undecided about Romney and Obama, but because of a long list of critical propositions. Though county staffs were beefed up way ahead of time, it still wasn’t enough to deal with the last-minute crunch of these mail-in ballots, which take longer to count. So convenience at the front end of the process meant inconvenience at the back.

Even for those voting at polling places on Election Day, lines were long, partly because, at least in this state’s case, the average voter spent a long time in the booth for the same reason – a long and complicated ballot. We’re all shocked by the stories about people waiting in line six hours to vote. You can already hear the sound of some politician pounding his fist on a podium demanding a full investigation of who dropped the ball. They shoulda done this, they shoulda done that.

At least it wasn’t the Middle East, where some voters stand in line never quite sure whether a bomb isn’t going to go off at the polling place. And God deliver us if we ever get a 90 percent turnout in this country.

No doubt, balls were dropped in some cases. But let’s say you’re on the receiving end of people’s frustrations. There’s always someone out there ready to judge you about how you do your business, and how they could do it much more efficiently than you if only they were in charge.

All I can say is that if there’s a new story in all of this, I haven’t heard it yet. Patience is not an American trait.