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It's election time again. And here in Oakland, California we are confronted with 11 partisan state offices, from Governor to Member of the State Assembly, 13 judges, city auditor, transit district director, and a director of the water board. And, 13 state-wide "measures submitted to the voters", also known as "propositions", and 3 for the city of Oakland. I have two booklets in front of me, sent out by the state, and Alameda County. The state-wide "Official Voter Information Guide" is 192 pages, the bulk of which describes the state propositions, complete with the text of the proposed laws and changed verbiage, as well as pro and con statements about each proposition. A thinner booklet, from the county, has a sample ballot, information about voting and my voting place (around the corner at a local elementary school), and the details on each of the local county or city-wide propositions. One thing that has always bugged me is that we always wind up having to vote for judges. And this time we have 13 of them. But, because these are "non-partisan" positions, there is absolutely no information about these people. The voter guide only gives their names. These district judges are nominated by a governor. So how "non-partisan" can they be? Every time there is a gubernatorial election, these judges also come up for election. But try to find any information about them. You can't, other than their official vita, supplied by, of course, the candidate. I guess when the laws about who can become a judge in this state were passed, it seemed like the epitome of Democracy (with a capital D) to let the voters decide. But the devil is always in the details. No one will tell me anything about these people, whether they are terrible judges or good ones. I just hope I never come up in front of any of them. So what are you supposed to do with these judges on the ballot? Since I can't justify voting either for or against any of them, my only choice is to not vote for any of them... leave that part of my ballot blank. Which is very unfortunate. (A "Don't Know" in addition to "Yes" and "No" would be very informative.) Dealing with the propositions is hard enough, altho I will say that due to a proposition passed in 2000 (prop.34) these voter guides have become very informative! (You can take a look online at http://www.voterguide.ss.ca.gov/.) Democracy is a great idea. But the implementation needs a little work. The really crazy thing going on in here in California is job swapping. The former Lt. Governor is running for Insurance Commissioner. The former Insurance Commissioner is running for Lt. Governor. The mayor of Oakland, who once was Governor of California, like his dad, and once ran for President as an independent, is running for Attorney General, even tho he hasn't practiced as a lawyer in years. I bet it all has something to do with state pensions, and not wanting to leave the company before retirement. (This is how cynical we can get.) Kinky Friedman (Texas Jew Boy running for Governor of that state .. and I hope he wins) said it best: POLITICS. Take the word apart - POLY means MANY, and TICS are blood-sucking parasites.
