So, I fear for our Republic.
In yesterday's election, California had a ballot proposition that dealt with the allocation of funds nominally dedicated to transportation needs. The proposition sought to put into place safeguards against the state using those funds for other purposes. However, in the overlap in time between the introduction of the proposition and the finalization of the ballot, the state enacted legislation that made the proposition moot. Hence, in the "arguments for" section of the voter pamphlet, the people who came up with the proposition in the first place instructed the voters of California to vote "no" on their own proposition.
We joked in the office at lunch yesterday about how many people would mistakenly vote for the unnecessary proposition anyway. We set the over/under line at 25%. We were way off.
The percentage of voting Californians who approved the proposition that was rejcted by its own backers? 42%.
When 42% of the voters ignore a direct instruction from the authors of a ballot initiative to reject their own proposition, what can that mean for propositions that actually have some meaning and consequence? It is not possible to dumb down the process more than the authors of Proposition 91 did yesterday, and 42% of voters still blew it.
All this tells me is that in order to get a ballot measure to succeed, you do not need to win 50% of the vote. You only need 8%, because the
2 comments:
David, you have been hit over the head with the same realization that is the single most discouraging aspect of everything politic to me -- the ignorance of the American citizen/voter. It's discouraging not only because it puts so much of our quality of life in potential jeopardy, but also because I'm reluctant to have to admit to something so humiliating as the demonstrated dumbing down of our society. I honestly hate being such a cynic and pessimist when issues such as ballot measures are put before the public, but results rarely show an overabundance of intelligence or reason. This, coupled with the overwhelming effect of distorted media soundbites as the sole source of most voters' knowledge of an issue, just drives me crazy! I'm glad to see you taking notice of it all the same.
This is why I have two rules for ballot propositions: (1) the default vote is always "no"; and (2) I always read the actual text of any proposition that is getting a lot of publicity. Almost without exception, the gloss propositions are given in TV ads does not match up with the text.
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