California November elections

[applez]

November Ballot (voted absentee):

Thanks to the California electoral process, I get 5 pages (two-sided) of options to vote on, and 383 pages of nonpartisan electoral material to review to reach my decision.

Here is how I voted, and generally why:

Comments

Election material

[gioogle]

5 pages to vote on...
383 pages to read to make a decision...

And I thought that voting in Italy was complicated...
:-)

Re: Election material

[applez]

Yeah, and it tends to only get worse. This is all a strong disincentive to vote, so the numbers required to get a direct proposition like these, to change the law, shrinks.

Re: Election material

[gioogle]

But are all 383 pages necessary, or can you skip through them?

(submerging the electorate with needless information is indeed a clever tactic... )

Re: Election material

[applez]

Ultimately that is a personal question of how a voter makes their decision.

For my part, I know I will have a busy 7 November, and prefer the convenience of an absentee ballot^. Moreover, since I then have the ballot in hand, with the materials to spend the time on, I find that having all that non-partisan material, especially the text of the proposed laws and rule changes to read for myself, is a boon

Re: Election material

[gioogle]

Agreed on the advantages of having the texts, costs of the propositions to make an informed decision... but are these stated clearly (in Italy often they aren't so we are back to square one, unless you really sit down and try to understand them)
As you have said, 383 pages are quite daunting and I'm afraid (as I also think you are) that most voters, faced with them, could "outsource" their decision-making (to friends or family - best case, or TV and politicians - worst case) and make an uninformed decision... at least, that could and probably would happen in Italy.
But that's also a matter of how "politically educated" people are...

Re: Election material

[applez]

Pretty clear yes