What’s the Issue?

With election day on Tuesday, most voters will be facing several ballot issues on which they are entitled to vote. How do you decide which way to vote? Let me tell you how I personally make these decisions.

The progressive reform movement that took hold in America around the turn of the 20th Century, out of concern that elected officials were not being adequately responsive to the needs of the people, spawned three new methods for direct citizen input into government decision making: the initiative, the referendum and the recall. Here is a concise description of these processes from the National Conference of State Legislatures, pointing out some variations from State to State.

Recall elections are the least common. A recent notable example was the removal of Governor Davis in California, a situation which seemed to me motivated more by Republican political opportunism than by some malfeasance or misfeasance on the part of Governor Davis, which is the standard I think should be applied in voting for recall.

In considering an initiative or referendum, the first thing I do is determine why the issue is on the ballot instead of being handled by the government officials we elected to conduct our business. In some cases, the State Constitution requires the issue be placed on the ballot, such as for State Constitutional amendments, in which case I look at the presentations on each side of the issue and decide which makes most sense to me. Sometimes the issue is a hot potato which the Legislature fears, in which case I again have to look for the most sensible side to take, though I wish the ballot gave an option to vote that the Legislature should do what we elected them to do - decide this issue as part of the overall package of issues being faced.

Too often, an initiative is placed on the ballot through the efforts of a group with a personal economic and ideological interest in the vote. Instead of lobbying the Legislators or educating the public on the issue, the interest group hires professional marketers to guide the measure through to passage. I think such marketing of issues is improper and dilutes the value of the legitimate initiative process, so I almost always vote against such issues on general principles.

Another category of issues is the so-called taxpayer revolt, placing limits on certain targeted taxes, often supposedly to “send a message” to the Legislature. These revolts and messages are naive disruptions of the Legislative process of budget making and I usually vote them down.

A final category I will mention is the issues that are sincerely intended to be for the benefit of the general public, but which the Legislature may not be fully considering. Examples could be environmental and animal protections and educational reforms. To me, these are legitimate uses of the initiative process, so I give them special study and try to decide based on what I think is in the best public interest.

A very good book on how these progressive reform processes have come to be abused is “Democracy Derailed” by David S. Broder.