Passage of Prop. 218

The incredibly low voter turnout on Nov. 5 only confirmed what many of us already know: Most Californians don’t value democracy all that much. What is even more tragic, however, is that even among those who vote, most fail to appreciate the very bedrock principle of democracy: majority rule.

Passage of Prop. 218, which requires a two-thirds “majority” before certain local tax initiatives can be enacted, effectively gives some voters an automatic second vote for each one they cast. Put another way, on many vitally important local issues, a minority of one-third of the electorate (plus one vote) will hold power over the rest of the electorate.

The constitutional battle for “one person, one vote” has been a long uphill struggle from the days when some of our Founding Fathers owned slaves. Some constitutional law optimists have thought the battle was won. Sadly, on Nov. 5 voters proved them wrong.

JOHN TRECHAK

Pasadena

* Reading the paper (“Cities Brace for Tighter Budgets After Prop. 218,” Nov. 7), one gets the feeling that city officials do not think the people they “rule” over have a brain in their heads, that we do not have the intelligence to vote our own destiny. I would say to these officials that biting the hand that feeds you is career-limiting.

Prop. 218 may be the best way of getting our tax money’s worth out of government.

EARLE McNEIL

San Clemente