I suppose if I were a good citizen, I’d vote today. That’s what you’re supposed to do when there’s an election. I live in the 26th Senate District, with an open seat since Mark Ridley-Thomas moved to the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors. So we have an election today.
But I wonder if any reasonable person would vote today. After all, haven’t I been a good citizen? Consider: I voted three times last year in statewide elections. I voted just three weeks ago in city elections. And I’ll be voting in less than two months, in the May 19 city and state special elections. If I vote today, I’ll be voting three times in two months. There are stretches when members of the legislature don’t vote as often.
Should voting in the senate race be a priority? I write about California politics for a living, but I can’t say I’m well informed about the race. There’s only one candidate I would recognize if I saw him on the street. Yes, it would take only a few minutes, but I have other priorities today. I’m on deadline on a magazine story. There are several interviews I need to do on other stories. I’ve got a wife and a new baby. Heck, I’ve got to finish this post.
I suspect I’m not the only one in the 26th district who feels that way. What to do? Certainly, elections need to be consolidated. But it also is worth looking at Instant Runoff Voting (full disclosure: IRV is strongly supported by the New America Foundation, which employs me, but there’s no party line and I’m under no obligation to say nice things about the idea) or other reforms that might reduce the number of elections.
It’s wonderful that this country and this state give us so many opportunities to vote. But anything can be overdone.