California should end voting on statewide propositions

My morning ritual getting ready for work includes gathering shaving supplies and scraping another day’s worth of whiskers off my face. Unfortunately, my sink drains slowly, reminding me to remove the unwanted debris clogging it up. I constantly remind myself to remove this plumbing congestion, yet it remains undone.

So, I wait. And wait. And wait. And wait until the sink eventually empties and can withstand a quick rinse of the bowl. An often-cited saying states that “The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result.”

California continues to clog our election ballots with state propositions that create more problems than solutions. We must flush the political sludge from our elections and drain the absurd idea that voting directly on state propositions is in California’s interest.

In this election, California is choking on 12 poorly conceived and horribly promoted state propositions. Twelve. Since 1912, California has averaged (both mean and median) around four state propositions on the ballot each election. The mode, the most frequently occurring number of propositions in our history, is one. But in 2020, California has dumped 12 propositions in the election pipeline, clogging our ballots that add further obstruction to the legislative process and unnecessary confusion to voters.

Approximately half of our country’s states use some form of state propositions that involve constitutional amendments, new statutes, and referendums about whether to uphold or repeal laws passed by state legislatures. That means the other half of our country allows the legislative process to work as designed.

There are several reasons why California should follow these other states and eliminate voting directly on state propositions:

First, propositions circumvent the legislative process. Voters decide on their state assembly representatives and senators as well as the governor. The state Legislature creates bills, presumably in the interest of our citizens. Once approved, the governor signs or vetoes the bill. If approved, these bills become law and can be ruled unconstitutional by the state Supreme Court. That is our state’s checks-and-balances. But direct, voter-approved state propositions bypass two-thirds of our government.

Second, voters should regularly communicate with their elected officials, hold them accountable, and replace politicians who fail to adequately represent them. That is being a responsible citizen. But propositions encourage mob voting, and our citizens must stop using this guilt-free card for failing to stay informed on their political representation.

Third, most of California’s propositions fail. From 1912 until 2018, 65% of our state propositions failed. Although a 35% success rate might be a good batting average in baseball, it is an abysmal result for elections when you consider the cost of printing and publicizing materials prior to elections. Further, consider when a proposition passes but is ruled unconstitutional by the state Supreme Court; the result is voter apathy, which is the exact opposite of what our state should be encouraging.

Fourth, propositions are often confusing or contradictory. Even the most motivated voter faces an intimidating amount of literature which, supposedly, adequately prepares the average citizen to understand nuances of these propositions. The more likely scenario, however, is that most voters never read the fine print, relying instead on propaganda that misrepresents the actual language contained in the proposition through some slick and meaningless commercial or flier.

California needs an elections plumber who uses an auger to dislodge state propositions from our ballots so that we can flush this ill-conceived process down the drain.