Prop 11: Most Important Prop, No One Knows What It Is!
The Issue: California voters will be deciding whether or not to enact Proposition 11 regarding California redistricting on the November ballot. According to a poll conducted by telephone by SurveyUSA, 59% of likely voters are not certain regarding their vote on Prop 11. This number has increased since last week, when that number was 49%.
According to their website, SurveyUSA is an “independent, non-partisan, full-service opinion research firm that conducts scientific research for media, government, and private-sector clients.” They have been conducting polls by telephone with Californians whom they consider to be likely voters in the November 4th election.
Their results for Proposition 12 are available here.
59% is quite a large margin of unsure voters 4 weeks away from election day. Especially surprising is the increase of 10% from the previous week. Normally toward the end of a campaign cycle, undecided voters start to go one way or the other. In elections, the polls eventually start to show the undecided voters leaning toward 1 candidate over another, but in this case the voters aren’t budging, in fact, they are even further from deciding.
One of the reasons California has not passed reforms like redistricting yet is because voters who don’t understand what a proposition is will vote against it. It is pretty easy to understand that Prop 8 will make gay marriage illegal or that prop 4 will require parental notification before abortions and people have an easy time forming an opinion. Figuring out how creating a complicate system to select 14 commissioners to redraw election districts is good for California is a little tougher to get your head around for many.
Make no mistake, Proposition 11 is the most important item on the California Ballot. If this thing passes, it will be the single greatest step toward effective reform in Sacramento. Please become educated on Prop 11. The Legislative Analyst’s Office provides an impartial analysis of the language.
I will be content to find out that California’s voters, knowledgeable of the provisions of the statute chose to vote against it. I will be sad to hear that many simply didn’t take the time to become educated on the matter and simply voted against it to save time. This is an important decision for our state, and definitely worth our time.
[...] propositions with Adam Haverstock and Igor Kagan of The Policy Report, I do agree with them on the importance of this measure. They’ve written some good articles about this proposition that are worth reading if you want [...]
I would agree that the issue Prop 11 targets is one of the most important core issues affecting California in general. However, Prop 11 is flawed, as have been most attempts at this issue. Prop 11 creates a bi-partisan committee for redistricting. What we need is a NON-partisan committee, someone who will not only attempt to balance things between Republicans and Democrats, but do away with the discrimination against other viable parties such as the Libertarians, Constitution Party, Greens, and anyone else whose message might find a receptive audience. Look at the details of Prop 11’s provisions: a strong majority of the committee would be partisan Democrats and Republicans. How is that opening things up fairly for all Californians?
Again, I agree that gerrymandering is an enormous issue. But it needs to be fixed, not disguised and affirmed. I’m leaning toward sending this one back…