COUNTYWIDE : County Issue Ballot Measures

In addition to choosing a president, two U. S. senators, U. S. representatives and dozens of local officials, voters on Nov. 3 must decide on 13 ballot measures ranging from

welfare reform to congressional term limits. Do voters have the time and information to make intelligent decisions on such wide-ranging social issues during election season?

Jim Dantona

Democratic political consultant Simi Valley I absolutely, strongly agree that people should vote on ballot measures. There’s never a better time than an election year. Yes, you have a lot of elected officials up. Yes, you have a presidential race. But I think that heightens people’s sensitivities and awareness and even their incentive to read some of these ballot measures. Take term limits, for example. I think that’s an extremely timely and important issue. In a year when elected officials are running for cover, I think term limits is an issue that people are fully informed on. This is our state, our county, our cities, our country. We need to tell the people who govern us what we want. When it comes down to things like term limits and welfare, things that affect our own lives and our own pocketbooks, I think it is right that we are involved.

Herbert Gooch

Political science professor Cal Lutheran University No. Which poses the interesting question: Have we come to the time when the initiative--the original impetus for developing a tool to return power to the people--no longer accomplishes that? The original intent has been corrupted as single-interest groups now use this as a way of getting around the regular political process. The voters are simply at sea. To some extent it breeds more cynicism about the political system. If you give voters too many choices, you’ll run the danger of confusing them, which can produce more cynicism and ultimately apathy. I have had not one student, of the 80 that I teach in two sections, who has asked about one ballot initiative this year. I’ve almost never seen such a low profile for such initiatives. I’m really shocked, if students are a gauge of how low the interest has been.

Katie St. Clair Fellows

President, League of Women Voters of Ventura County I know that a lot of people do take this seriously. They are very frustrated by not being able to get the answers to questions and having conflicting information from proponents and opponents, so they don’t know what to believe. We publish pros and cons on ballot issues because we’re aware of the lack of information that voters have. The problem is that even with the arguments, there’s not enough information to tell what the law really says. An example of this would be (Proposition) 165. The League was a party to a lawsuit against Gov. Wilson because this initiative is very misleading. It’s advertised as welfare reform but that’s really just a small part of that initiative. The most important part, which the voters may not realize, is a change in the balance of power. It gives the governor of this state more power over budget matters than the governor of any other state.

Maria Teran

President, Conejo Valley Chamber of Commerce If the voters would continue to deal with these referendum items, then perhaps we wouldn’t need to discuss Congressional term limitations because we wouldn’t need elected representatives. We, in this republican democracy, vote in our elected officials to make these decisions. I don’t think that the voter takes the time to examine every aspect of these various propositions. If, in this case, the Assembly were doing its job, we wouldn’t have to vote on these things. The information is available but it’s worded in such a way that you need a lawyer to explain what it says. Therefore the voter can only rely on interpretations by various groups such as the Chamber of Commerce, the League of Women Voters--who do a splendid job--various special interest groups, and they put a slant on it. So it makes it very, very difficult.

Maria Teran

Co-chair, Latino Coalition for Fair Representation They not only don’t have the time, I think that the information from the media is not adequate. The media does a very poor job of providing information to the voters. I think (voters) go to the polls lacking information altogether. Few people take time to study the issues unless they’re directly involved. I know I’m not familiar with probably 90% of what’s on the ballot right now. I probably won’t make myself aware until the 12th hour like everyone else. You’ll go in there and take a blind guess about what’s on the ballot based on the way it’s worded. It’s too bad that they’re all put on there at once. There should be a limit on what’s put on, especially when you’re having a presidential election and all that.