Election Guide

Twenty years ago or so I began to publish an election guide. It started out as a question from my mother in law who said "Can you make sense of all these propositions?" Over time the guide's readership has grown. In the last election, through its initial mailing and subsequent re-mailings the guide went to over 400 people in California. I try not to express an opinion on prominent positions for office. I figure if people cannot figure out who they should vote for president, I probably cannot help them. But on some of the lower offices I do provide preferences.

On this ballot there are a dozen items to figure out. There are 10 initiatives including a couple of very prominent ones. There are three that involve bonding authority. A couple of issues are fundamentally retreads - one is there because of a court decision by our supreme court, two are there in a slightly altered form as a result of the voters rejecting an earlier version of the idea. A couple are funded because of the wealth of people like George Soros and John Sperling (the founder of the University of Phoenix) - neither of which are fulltime Californians. A The Secretary of State lists their general title as follows:

Prop. 1A -Safe, Reliable High-Speed Passenger Train Bond Act.
Prop. 2 -Standards for Confining Farm Animals. Initiative Statute.
Prop. 3- Children’s Hospital Bond Act. Grant Program. Initiative Statute.
Prop. 4- Waiting Period and Parental Notification Before Termination of Minor’s Pregnancy. Initiative Constitutional Amendment.
Prop. 5 - Nonviolent Drug Offenses. Sentencing, Parole and Rehabilitation. Initiative Statute.
Prop. 6 -Police and Law Enforcement Funding. Criminal Penalties and Laws. Initiative Statute.
Prop. 7 - Renewable Energy Generation. Initiative Statute.
Prop. 8 - Eliminates Right of Same-Sex Couples to Marry. Initiative Constitutional Amendment.
Prop. 9 - Criminal Justice System. Victims’ Rights. Parole. Initiative Constitutional Amendment and Statute.
Prop. 10 - Alternative Fuel Vehicles and Renewable Energy. Bonds. Initiative Statute.
Prop. 11- Redistricting. Initiative Constitutional Amendment and Statute.
Prop. 12- Veterans’ Bond Act of 2008.

Over the next two months I will present some analysis of each of them. I am not going to do them in order because I have not put equal thought into each. On a couple you may be surprised at my conclusion. Quite frankly, I am too.

Here are some operating principles that I begin with for looking at ballot measures. #1 - the underlying principle of any ballot measure should be "Why should I say yes?" The default option should always begin with NO. #2 - That is especially true for measures which propose to bring the state further into debt. A key idea from public choice economics (I am a fan of this line of reasoning) is that if we are committing future generations (who cannot vote for themselves) we should be extra careful. #3 - I have a general principle that the Constitution should be a relatively brief document. And finally, for the most part, although I do not always agree with the voters, I think, they make relatively careful decisions. With some major exceptions like Proposition 103 (the initiative which created an elected position for Commissioner of Insurance and did a whole lot of other oddities for state law) they are able to sort out issues.