Like all of you, my wife and I received our Official Voter Information Guides last week. Each guide clocks in at 175 undecipherable pages and weighs a whopping half-pound. Why did they send us two? Do they think my wife will horde the coveted government document and refuse to let me slog through all 175 pages? My wife is a generous person and she likes me most of the time. We could easily get by with one document. How much did each Information Guide cost to print? How much did it cost to mail each of them? How many trees ended their time on this Earth to supply the paper? Seems like a lot of waste to me. Where is Nick Shirley when we need him? Oh, our brilliant state Assembly tried to shut him down with Assembly Bill 2564.
As troubling as this obvious monumental amount of waste is, equally mind-numbing is what is printed on those 175 pages. I thought English was the official language of the United States. Why in the name of God did they print the Information Guide in Greek? I have a suggestion for future Information Guides and Sample Ballots. For every measure on the ballot, begin the explanation by printing, “In plain English” and then print the explanation in language the average voter can understand. We are not all lawyers. It would create a more informed electorate. But maybe that’s not what the government wants.
There is one saving grace for those of us who struggle to translate Greek to English. The bureaucrats have, for each ballot measure, listed the supporters and opponents. For example, listed as supporters for Measure 2 are Gavin Newsom and Xavier Becerra. The vote is an obvious “No.” One opponent of Measure 4 is the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association. Another obvious “No.” An opponent of Measure 39 is the ACLU. Therefore, an obvious “Yes.” An opponent of both Measures 41 and 42 is Comrade Sen. Bernie Sanders. Vote Yes on 41 and 42. He supports Measure 40. A big fat “No.”
Maybe by the next election cycle, the state will figure out how to make voting a less cumbersome process. Maybe more people will vote. And maybe, just maybe, we will know the results of the election the day after.
Larry Moore
Valencia
