Just got the 77 page voter info guide.

[AlCzervik]

good lord i saved the last 5 i got from the past couple of elections, stacked up they are the size of a small yellow pages.

[fooj]

I know. Got it yesterday...

Geez...............

Peace.

[whistle]

1. Guide to do what, vote?

[AlCzervik]

3. the special election?

[JuniperLea]

2. a design to put people off i'm thinking

[beyurslf]

4. It's 77 pages long? Who the hell has time to read through all that before

voting? I woudl imagine a first time voter getting that would toss it out and decide it is obviously too much hassle.

[kineneb]

5. hint for reading those things

I learned this from my grandfather:
1. for each proposition, go to the pages with the arguments for/against
2. look at the names of those who support or oppose the initiative
3. make decision based on who is putting up the money ("follow the money")
4. if the initiative is supported by a bunch of right-wing nutcases, there is your answer...no need to read entire book, unless you need an insomnia cure...
5. save booklet for heating house this winter or for using in outhouse (my suggestion, given the general direction of the country)

works every time

[bemildred]

6. Very good rules. Much like mine. Props to Granddad.

Another one is "If it's too confusing to understand, it's too
confusing to vote for."

[ronnykmarshall]

7. This one's easy

NO on everything!

[petronius]

9. Yep...

I was planning on straight "no" just because I'm sick of this 'govern by initiative' thing we've had going on, but then I read the summaries and changed all my votes to "hell no!"

[cascadiance]

10. Keep in mind that if 78 and 79 both pass...

The one with the most votes is the one that "wins". We should try and make sure that 78 has no chance of becoming law. Should vote yes on 79. I'll also vote yes on 80 too, but the consequences of that one failing are less.

[petronius]

11. I'll look at those more closely

Still, I feel a pretty strong desire to cast a protest vote of sorts - if none of these ballot initiatives pass perhaps it will discourage (in a small way) the over-reliance on the initiative process that we've been seeing recently (in my opinion, anyway). Schwarzenegger is guilty of it in a big way, but it really started long before him.


I'd rather have the Legislature and the Governor make these decisions after careful consideration, and I'll express my views by choosing my representatives.

[Ranec]

15. So do we know if they are both going to pass?

Has there been any polling?

I hate intiatives. I read the prop 80 book and website, and it still isn't clear to me what it does. How are people supposed to make informed decisions about such complicated legislation?

[cascadiance]

16. I'm still thinking of starting an initiative to change initiatives

that would hopefully incentivize those writing initiatives to make them simpler and more understandable if they want to have any hope of passing them.

I'd like to propose that there actually be two YES/NO votes for each initiative instead of one.

The first vote would be the "mandate" portion of the vote. This portion would only have something like a single paragraph or small amount of text to describe the premise of what is being voted on in a simple way. It would have no legal impact at all through voting yes on it. It would simply allow voters to express their opinion on the stated objective of the initiative without any consequences of something going into law.

The second vote of an initiative would actually have the detailed description on how this initiative would put this initiative into law. Voting yes on this would have the same effect of voting yes on one of today's propositions would. Voting yes on this would indicate you favor how the authors of this proposition want to change our laws to reflect the premise of such a proposition.

By changing it to two votes, it would take away those folks voting emotionally on an issue that they feel strongly about, but feel that they don't understand well enough what's being proposed legally to vote yes on the second part. If a proposition passed the first vote, but failed the second, it is the voting public saying that they like the premise of a proposition, but don't understand or disagree with the proposal on how to put it into law. Perhaps in such a situation, you force the legislature to take the premise part of it and put up another law for support by the people or the like, until we get a law that a majority of us likes and feels they understand.

This would hopefully encourage those that want to write propositions to make sure that they don't get it too filled up with pork or other crap that doesn't really apply to or distorts the premise being voted on emotionally by people. Hopefully they will craft better and simpler laws that way that we can all have the power to vote on and put into law and not feel like we're getting hoodwinked in the process of doing so.

[David__77]

12. 79 and 80 are worthy of support.

These are to have effective negotiating power for pharmaceutical discounting (79) and to re-regulate the out-of-control "free market" energy industry (80).

[political_invader]

13. If you read pages 2-5 The way it is worded I can see how the

majority of noninformed voters can end up voting Yes for 73-78. We must not allow this to happen. I agree No on 73-78 yes on 79 and 80.

[Name removed]

8. Deleted message

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[davidinalameda]

14. I haven't received mine yet

maybe it will be in today's mail

[jfern]

17. I think most here will agree

No on 73-78
Yes on 79 and 80