Election Day

All this just for me

Avoiding the rush, I voted on Monday, in person, at the Community Center. At noon there was no line. Otherwise, it felt like cramming for an exam.

It took two hours to review the stack of election materials and fill out the cheat sheet. The Presidential race and a few State Propositions--22 (independent contractors), 15 (property tax modification), and 16 (affirmative action)--have garnered all the publicity, but there were nine other propositions to study, school boards and harbor district boards to elect, and bond measures to consider.

I continue to follow my two general rules posted in 2010 for voting on candidates and propositions:

1) I don’t vote for lawyers. Some of my best friends are lawyers, and they’re some of the smartest and most honest (really!) people I know, but lawyers are vastly over-represented in government. The legal mentality---I know I’m exaggerating—believes that a desirable outcome can be obtained by passing the right law or by crafting a regulation with just the right words. That’s not how the world works; the right words don’t clean up oil spills or dissuade people from crossing the border illegally or produce quality cars and emergency rooms.

2) I don’t vote for propositions. Somehow I’ve managed to live over half a century without the [five] state ballot initiatives that have been proposed this year. New laws usually add to the burden, not the joy, of living. Unless there is a severe problem that our elected representatives have decided not to address--such as the State’s overflowing treasury from a 1970’s real-estate boom that produced the property-tax limits of Proposition 13—I automatically vote against propositions. (One cheerful exception would be a law that retires or replaces two or more others; wake me when that happens.)

Update: I've had to modify rule #2 above. Now that California is a one-Party State, that is, it's run by a Governor and filubuster-proof Legislature of the same political party, there's been a lot of mischief concocted since 2010, so I will vote for Propositions that overturn some of that mischief.

Happy Election Day, everyone! © 2020 Stephen Yuen