Tuesday, October 21, 2014

This Might Be Futile

Midterm elections are in a couple of weeks.  My absentee voter ballot arrived on Saturday, and I've spent the better part of the last three days researching and trying to figure out who/what the heck I'm going to vote for.  
In the mail alone, I've received a General Election booklet, and General Election Supplemental booklet, a sample ballot, a guide to voting in the election booklet, and absentee ballot booklet, and various partisan-based literature about the propositions on this year's ballot.

One would think with all this literature, navigating what to do based on my ideology would be easy.  No such luck.  I felt like I was reading tax code for all the good these documents did. An "Elections for Dummies" guide would have been much more helpful, so I headed to the Internet to see what kind of information I could find there.  Even sites written for the common person made no sense for what I should do.
And then I was stumped.  The nominees for my District's State Representative are both Republican!  Where is my other option?  After some research, I found this is a byproduct of our Open Primaries which were adopted in 2012.  I'm frustrated about my lack of choice for a Representative to Congress (who have been an utter disgrace over the last few years).  I'm voting in the hopes to make a change and my only two choices are the status quo.  Humph!
Our country has such a low voter turnout, and after hearing about Scotland's recent 85% turnout in their independence election, I'm ashamed.  It's our duty and a right that we shouldn't take advantage of. In the past, I've always felt empowered and accomplished when I voted.  I was enacting change!  But I will say, it was a lot of work to fill in my ballot this year and after all is said and done, I'm not terribly convinced that I voted correctly nor that anything will change for the better.

No wonder Americans don't vote.  On the other hand, since I am voting I'm allowed to complain about my government.  So at least there's that.

11 comments:

  1. They are really going out of their way to baffle when a graduate of a university cannot parse their 'literature'. But if they are doing this with election materiel they are disenfranchising a huge proportion of the voter base.
    There is absolutely no need to write something so impenetrable.

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    1. I know, right!?!? I'm by no means a civics' expert, but I'm not a dummy either. It has been just about impossible to find any literature that is bi-partisan except the stuff sent out by the Secretary of State and that is so convoluted. They've "tried" to summarize it for the sample ballots, but even that is written in legal-speak that a layperson isn't going to have the wherewithal (nor the time) to comprehend. Those who are far less educated would have a terrible time and probably would just throw their hands up and not even vote. But, maybe that's the point.
      On Monday night, I was getting so frustrated about a couple of measures, I contacted a tax-lawyer friend of mine whose response was "I have no idea." Which is saying something!

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  2. All this is stuff for California ?.

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    1. Yah, midterms are state reps to congress and state, county, city officials or measures/propositions. Our biggies are governor and Congress this go round.
      The propositions are always a mixed bag. Anyone can get one put on the ballot as long as they have enough signatures. So they are hard to navigate as they are more likely to be a special interest group trying to get a law passed that will benefit them under the guise of being a wise choice for the state.

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    2. Still it's better to have that ability that not all the same. That way if some special interest legislation is passed it can be removed by plebiscite.

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    3. Oh do you know your bott checker is on. It seems to be on on all the blogger blogs I comment.

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    4. No! What do you mean? Like word verification? Everything looks the same when I post.

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  3. I posted about the upcoming election today, too. Great minds think alike. ;-)

    But seriously, I've been disenchanted that many of the local races here offer only more of the same. I suppose that's nothing new, but it is lamentable.

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  4. Yah, I'm feeling like things are SO bad on the hill right now, but it's probably always been that way. We just hear more about it these days than ever before. I'm certainly not happy with my options this year, but then again, are we ever. :)

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  5. I wonder if the pre internet,
    Happy Weekend!pre "know all about everyone" politicians were as immoral as today's?

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    1. and pre-24-hour-news-cycle?
      It does seem like our politicians are more concerned with the lobbyists these days than the citizens they are supposed to represent. Big business has a lot more representation than we do, that's for sure. Is that new? I don't know.

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