merchimerch (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
merchimerch) wrote2010-10-31 12:44 pm
merchimerch) wrote2010-10-31 12:44 pm
yay voting! and the broken prop system
I just returned from my walk to courthouse to complete my early voting. It was easy and fast and will mean that I don't have to try and make it to the polls right when they open at 7 before rushing to my 8 a.m. bus to work. Plus it was a beautiful day outside -- bonus!
My Bosnian also completed his ballot by mail yesterday and our discussion over props 20 and 27 just underscores how bad the prop system is in California. Yes props like 23 also illustrate that point, but at least engaged, intelligent, net savvy folks can trace the funding, read the bills, and make a clear decision.
Redistricting, even after considering the issue from a variety of angles and reading a lot of opinions on it, remains a puzzle that I don't think that the electorate can solve. It would be great to vote on who is put on these committees, but voting as to their existence seems like a really complex issues. Plus, I'm not sure what hidden powers might be vested in these committees through the prop. It just seems to complex for a yes/no vote.
I like the idea that elected officials, rather than appointees are making decisions, but I don't know how I feel about elected officials drawing the lines of their own districts. I don't like the idea of appointed oligarchs doing it either. Someone else made the point that at a national level, other states like Texas aren't engaging in this kind of reform and wouldn't it be bad if California enacted a more moderate/mixed district policy, while Tom DeLay still gets to draw his own.
Broken system on so many levels.
Will someone please write a prop that ends all props for the next election cycle? That is one petition that I'd actually sign.
(The broken prop system is why I don't sign any of the petitions that the poor saps who are hired to collect them outside the TJ ask me to).
My Bosnian also completed his ballot by mail yesterday and our discussion over props 20 and 27 just underscores how bad the prop system is in California. Yes props like 23 also illustrate that point, but at least engaged, intelligent, net savvy folks can trace the funding, read the bills, and make a clear decision.
Redistricting, even after considering the issue from a variety of angles and reading a lot of opinions on it, remains a puzzle that I don't think that the electorate can solve. It would be great to vote on who is put on these committees, but voting as to their existence seems like a really complex issues. Plus, I'm not sure what hidden powers might be vested in these committees through the prop. It just seems to complex for a yes/no vote.
I like the idea that elected officials, rather than appointees are making decisions, but I don't know how I feel about elected officials drawing the lines of their own districts. I don't like the idea of appointed oligarchs doing it either. Someone else made the point that at a national level, other states like Texas aren't engaging in this kind of reform and wouldn't it be bad if California enacted a more moderate/mixed district policy, while Tom DeLay still gets to draw his own.
Broken system on so many levels.
Will someone please write a prop that ends all props for the next election cycle? That is one petition that I'd actually sign.
(The broken prop system is why I don't sign any of the petitions that the poor saps who are hired to collect them outside the TJ ask me to).