The Goo Goo Dolls are on the march, and they want to make it easier for you vote.
I’m not talking about the band, but about the good government community and its allies in state government. The miserable low turnout in California elections has inspired a wide variety of plans to make it easier to vote. Automatic voter registration. Automatic mailing of ballots. An easing of restrictions and rules that can make voting a chore.
Many of these are fine ideas — though it’s interesting that the post office and cars – both of which are in decline – are the areas of emphasis. Why not tie to voting to horse purchases and newspaper subscriptions while they’re at it?
But they don’t really solve the problem. All of these reforms are about making it easier to vote. None of the reforms being offered would give people any more reason to vote.
And it’s hard to find reasons to vote in California.
Californians have figured out, correctly, that their vote doesn’t much matter. Despite previous reforms, one party is going to be in charge in the state for the foreseeable future, and one party or the other dominates in almost all districts. And even when you elect an official in California, they are highly constrained — by a whips-and-chains budget system, by a crazily overfull constitution, by regulation and court decisions.
California’s single-member districts divide up regions and make it hard to vote for a true representative of your various interests. Small party members have less reason to vote because of the top two changes that eliminate primaries. And top two has added to the expense and confusion of campaigns. Local elections are bloodless and nonpartisan – why bother to vote for people who can’t hurt you with taxes?
In most elections, the best reason to vote is to say no to ballot initiatives, however well intentioned, that lock in new constraints. And that’s not a lot of reason.
Californians are opting out of voting not because of the difficulty of the process. They are opting out – correctly, it says here – because of the pointlessness of the exercise.
So if you want more people to vote, you have to give them reasons. A new constitution that sweeps away constraints on state and local elected officials – when they have more power, more people will show up for those positions. An abandonment of the failed top two and an embrace of the energy of parties and partisanship. One reform that would bring more people to the polls would be a switch to partisan local elections.
But such ideas are considered unrealistic in California’s upside-down politics. The real issue is that the people in charge don’t want to give your vote more power. So don’t be bothered about their lectures; you should feel free to stay home until they give you some reasons.