Tricks and Treats in the Voting Booth

It’s one of the curious traditions of American democracy: Our most important elections are always staged a few days after Halloween.

Coincidence? Maybe not. I’m beginning to think maybe there’s a reason buried deep in the American psyche. Halloween hasn’t always been about kids playing dress-up and cutely pretending to extort neighbors with the threat of trick or treat. It has its roots in ancient customs that encourage people to face their deepest fears. Freud would have a field day pondering how witches and ghosts and goblins prepare us to choose among Clinton, Dole and Perot. Spooky.

These thoughts come to mind because today, on Halloween, I’ll be putting my absentee ballot in the mail. When Nov. 5 rolls around I’ll be vacationing far from home, so it seemed like a fine idea to combine these pagan rituals.

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And maybe it’s not just the calendar, but the absentee ballot, my first, that has me thinking about Halloween.

Like millions of Americans, I usually enter a voting booth half prepared. I have strong feelings about some candidates and issues, ambivalence toward others and indifference to some. Seldom, however, do I let indifference or ignorance keep me from exercising my right to vote. I give Proposition X the once-over and vote my gut. That’s the American way, isn’t it?

Voting absentee is more like having the rival candidates and ballot measures come right to your door. You see their costumes in TV ads, in campaign mailers, in the official voter’s pamphlets. But in elections, you only get to treat one to your vote--and even that can get complicated.

Consider the dueling campaign finance reform initiatives, Propositions 208 and 212. It would have been nice if good-government types like Common Cause, the League of Women Voters and the California Public Interest Research Group could have come up with a single plan, but that would have been too simple. So Common Cause and the League of Women Voters went one way, advancing Proposition 208, and CALPIRG went the other, creating Proposition 212.

Unlike, say, Proposition 204, the Safe, Clean, Reliable Water Act, or Proposition 206, the Veterans Bond Act, both 208 and 212 claim that they’ll scare the bejesus out of politicians and power brokers. Many people will be tempted to vote for both, but backers of each measure want you to choose just one. If both win a majority, the one with the most votes prevails.

Fortunately, space won’t permit much detail about 208 and 212; that’s what your ballot pamphlet is for. Many of us quickly check the identity of the sponsors and make our judgments based on whether we have a favorable impression of those groups or individuals. Other backers of 208 include the American Assn. of Retired Persons, while 212 is backed by former Gov. Jerry Brown.

These names might help us make our decision. You probably won’t be surprised to learn that Jerry Brown’s reform measure is considered more radical than the one backed by the AARP and the League of Women Voters. This is, in fact, a key selling point for the Yes on 212 campaign.

“George Skelton said that Proposition 212 would hit Sacramento like a 6.6 earthquake,” campaign operative Adam Ruben boasted over the phone, referring to a column by my colleague in the state Capitol.

Ruben was quoting selectively. Actually, Skelton had written that 212 “would shake the Capitol like a 6.6 quake if it survived court tests. But that’s a big ‘if.’ ”

Whatever, as Bob Dole might say. Ruben soon faxed me a flier that seemed apt:

POLITICS CAN BE SPOOKY. But this is Halloween, it’s the Sacramento special interests who are getting scared, as they contemplate Proposition 212, the toughest campaign finance reform law in America.

Prop. 208, a second measure on the ballot, doesn’t stand a ghost of a chance of scaring anybody. In fact, 208 is kind of tricky even to understand. But Prop. 212 is a real treat.

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The propaganda goes back and forth. As a matter of fairness, or perhaps ambivalence, let it be noted that 2O8, while more modest in its reforms, is also considered more realistic and better able to withstand a legal challenge.

Still, as judged by the standards of Halloween, it’s hard not to admire Proposition 212.

Talk about strange bedfellows. The campaign, I’m told, is hoping to release an op-ed piece under the unlikely bylines of Jerry Brown, a man who inspires horror in the right, and William Dannemeyer, who inspires terror in the left.

Dannemeyer, you may recall, is a former Orange County congressman known for his hard-line stance against the gay civil rights movement.

The way I hear it, even the expression “strange bedfellows” gives him the heebie-jeebies.

Scott Harris’ column appears Tuesdays, Thursdays and Sundays. Readers may write to Harris at the Times Valley Edition, 20000 Prairie St., Chatsworth, Calif. 91311. Please include a phone number.

Freud would have a field day pondering how witches and ghosts and goblins prepare us to choose among Clinton, Dole and Perot. Spooky.