‘98 Election and Lazy Voters

Patt Morrison is 100% right on in her condemnation of the ignorant (“A Vote With the Weight of 10,” Nov. 4). If you’re uninformed, don’t vote! We live in an age of unimaginable access to information, yet that access is negated by our increasingly sedentary lifestyles. Without mudslinging TV ads, most people probably wouldn’t even know what or who is on the ballot in the first place!

Do voters who voted no on Proposition 3 realize they have voted to sever their own tongue in presidential primaries? Proposition 5, say goodbye to employee rights. Proposition 9, subsidize big-business blunders. Proposition 6, why isolate horses?

Many people plead cynicism for not seeking information, but I believe we have grown lazy and take for granted a political system that, even with its flaws, is still the bedrock of free societies around the world.

MATTHEW LANE

Valley Village

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Once again, California voters showed their stupidity. By defeating Proposition 3 by 500,000 votes, our nation’s No. 1 state will no longer be electing delegates to the national GOP and Democratic presidential conventions because the major political parties will refuse to seat any delegate who may have been elected by voters not registered as members of the party of the prospective delegate.

Last spring, knowing that Dan Lungren was a shoo-in for the GOP gubernatorial nomination, I decided to cast my Republican vote for the weakest Democrat on the ballot, giving Lungren the easiest-to-defeat opponent in November. This was legal but was wrong. Any law that grants me the right to have any influence whatsoever in the selection of candidates for parties other than mine is stupid.

In the year 2000, our open primary system guarantees either two state conventions with smoke-filled rooms (one for each party), or in the alternative, the antiquated and ridiculous “caucus system” in people’s living rooms, such as is used in Iowa.

JERRY HERMES

San Diego

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Improving voter turnout could be achieved, I believe, by making our polling places more visible and conspicuous. A local garage sale is advertised better and people are made more aware of its location than a voter’s polling booth.

The registrar of voters should make an effort to promote our polling locations by using more signs, more flags, etc., and promote the locations even days before.

GEORGE W. SHULTZ JR.

Fullerton

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It is no wonder Generation-X voter turnout is low when TV stations are reporting winners only minutes after the polls close, with less than 5% of the precincts reporting. The only way to motivate the young, apathetic electorate is to leave the prognostications and winner predictions until the morning after the election, or at least until a majority of votes have been counted.

JASON M. INSALACO

Arcadia

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This is for Newt Gingrich and all of the others who are trying or claiming to decipher the results of last Tuesday. It’s real easy. The election was not a referendum about Clinton nor on the impeachment process. No, it was a referendum on us--the American people. And we are telling you, again apparently, to pay attention to what we pay attention to. That’s all.

We elected you. We pay your salaries. Do something for us. And when we want you to go after our president, we’ll tell you. So far, outside of a small radius in Washington, it’s been real quiet. Pay attention to America, and Americans will be happy. A wrestler figured that out.

RICHARD RASKIN

Encino

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The best evidence of the California voters’ “discerning” voice (editorial, Nov. 4) is their vote to return Barbara Boxer to the U.S. Senate despite your endorsement of her opponent. Obviously, the voters “discerned” the fact that you misjudged the high regard most Californians have for Boxer’s fearless outspokenness in behalf of the environment, gun control and yes, a woman’s right to choose.

HELEN TIEGER

Huntington Beach

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School vouchers were an underlying factor in the 1998 California elections. Every candidate on my ballot who supported vouchers was soundly defeated: Dan Lungren, Matt Fong, Gloria Tuchman and Randy Hoffman.

The voters of California do not want their tax dollars spent on private schools. It is time the Republican Party leadership recognizes this. Schools need reform. A voucher plan, otherwise known as school choice or opportunity scholarships, is not the answer.

If voters want to work to improve public education, they should volunteer at their local school.

EDWARD KAZ

West Hills

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So the “not inappropriately named Gray Davis,” as pundits refer to him, will be our next governor. Robert A. Jones (Essay, Nov. 1) and the rest of the political elite express surprise, but why? The steadfast Davis has been smartly efficient in every job he has ever held--from the armed services to Jerry Brown’s chief of staff, to every elective office he has won away from more colorful opponents--and our state will only benefit from this man’s integrity.

JACQUELINE KERR

Los Angeles