California Propositions: How I Voted
Props in bold are the ones I care strongly about.
Prop 1A: No
Prop 2: No
Prop 3: Yes
Prop 4: No
Prop 5: Yes
Prop 6: No
Prop 7: No
Prop 8: No
Prop 9: No
Prop 10: Yes
Prop 11: Yes
Prop 12: Yes
I urge everyone in California to vote for Prop 3 for totally self-interested reasons. My child regularly visits Children's Hospital in Oakland because of his hemophilia. That place is wonderful to us and everyone else that seeks treatment there. They deserve the money and it will go to a good cause.
I struggled with Prop 4 until I realized the only issue I really had was about notification in general, not the timing. I believe parents should be notified, especially for any surgical medical procedure. However, that notification could easily come after the procedure was completed. I wish they'd pass that law, and not this one that subtly tries to violate personal rights.
Voting against Prop 8 should be self explanatory. If you vote yes then you're a bigot. It's that simple.
As for Prop 11, I admit it has some flaws. That said, I want something to be done about districting and it's clear to me that elected politicians should not be in charge of their own districting (just like they shouldn't be in charge of their own pay raise). Sadly though, I doubt this will pass.
And my support for Prop 12, another completely self-interested vote, is due to being a veteran. I would like to someday own a home in California. It doesn't seem possible, but I know if I make the attempt, I will need the VA home loan benefit. I served my country, which is more than most can say, and I do think I ought to get some tangible benefit for that service. I'd also point out to folks that this prop does not cost taxpayers anything. It just approves the state to give out more loans to veterans that they would have to pay back.
Feel free to argue with me in the comments.
california
I like!
No thanks!
Favorite
12 commentsReplies
Betty said, (51 days ago)
prop 4 is NOT OK. think about a 16 or 17 year old girl, who was raped by her uncle, and comes from a very very religious family, who will side with the uncle if she tells them, and will most likely force her to have the baby.
soulcamp said, (51 days ago)
Generally I am opposed to most ballot propositions because I feel that A) they are abused by special interests who spend large amounts of advertising money to convince the (generally) uninformed public into passing legislation they cannot get passed through the normal legislative process, and B) they allow a simply majority of voters (who may actually be a small minority of the population) to amend the state constitution (as in the case of Prop 8).
CA has a population of over 36.5 million. As of June 2008, 16.1 million out of 23 million eligible voters were registered. The last election, prop 99 passed with only 2.7 million votes in favor of it. That's only 17% of the registered voters. In the last major election (Nov. 2006), one proposition passed with only 4.4 million votes, and even the one that passed with the widest margin of victory only had 6.4 million votes in favor. That's still only 40% of registered voter approval.
As you can see, most state propositions are passed with only a very small minority of voter approval. This is extremely dangerous when you consider that the state's constitution can be amended via this practice, and is often done so (the CA state constitution is over 110 pages long).
We need to get rid of the highly corruptible state initiative system.
le_sacre said, (51 days ago)
i had a hard time finding a definitive answer to this question:
on these propositions, does passage require a majority of votes cast on each proposition individually, or a majority out of ballots cast? i.e., when someone leaves a proposition blank, does that count as a "no"?
seems like it should.
Centropomus said, (51 days ago)
@le_sacre: A blank answer to one question does not count as any vote, but in some jurisdictions the entire ballot gets thrown out if there are any missing votes.
Centropomus said, (51 days ago)
Holy shit. Prop 11 is a disaster. This is why many states use panels of retired judges.
seemingly satanic said, (51 days ago)
I'm sorry, but Prop 3 is a total NO. Sure, it sounds like a no-brainer, who doesn't want to support children's hospitals, but this proposition is written wrong and the money goes to the wrong places.
soulcamp said, (51 days ago)
99% of propositions are written badly. Because they are designed specifically to hide the true interests of the authors behind a bunch of touchy-feely language that appeals undereducated voters. If a proposition were truly a no-brainer, chances are it would have already been enacted through the normal legislative process. There are a few exceptions, but they are very rare.
seemingly satanic said, (51 days ago)
agreed, soulcamp. this one bothers me a lot because of course hospitals need money and especially children's hospitals, but this earmarks SHITLOADS of public money to private hospitals mostly for cosmetic fixes. 20% of the nearly $1 billion bond goes to public institutions and the rest will be given to institutions that already have a lot of money from grants and endowments and can make their fixes on their own.
Prop 5 is seriously flawed. While I personally am in favor of decriminalizing most drugs, I believe it has to be addressed nationwide. It's huge shift in policy, and it must start with rethinking the entire war on drugs. It is not addressed by this measure.
Prop 5 proposes an increase in spending by over $500 million dollars annually, with no identifiable sources to pay for it. This, at a time where the state has a deficit spanning billions of dollars. I do not see anything proposed in this measure beneficial enough to either increase CAs already outrageous taxes, or cut spending in other areas that are more important.