Some people wonder why California gubernatorial candidate Meg Whitman never voted in 28 years. Well, how about this: Perhaps she didn’t understand half the measures on the ballots, so she didn’t bother?
OK, it may be ridiculous to suggest the mega- millionaire and ex-eBay CEO was not smart enough to understand ballot issues. But it’s not ridiculous to suggest she didn’t have the time it takes to study them. I suggest that’s true about many of us, and believe that voter turnout is shamefully low in many U.S. elections because the measures are simply too complex and the ballots overwhelming.
Once upon a time, all you needed to vote was a sense of civic duty and your voter registration card. Today, understanding the amendments and propositions takes dedicated study and a love of fine print.
Take Denver County’s Nov. 2 ballot. It’s not a particularly long or onerous one. But looking at my sample ballot here, I’m KO’d right out of the corner by Amendment R.
Its description reads: “Shall there be an amendment to section 3 (l)(b) of article X of the constitution of the state of Colorado, concerning an exemption from property taxation for a possessory interest in real property if the actual value of the interest is less than or equal to six thousand dollars or such amount adjusted for inflation?”
Unless you own a “possessory interest” or are a real estate or tax lawyer, I’m betting you don’t know what that means.
To help educate voters, the state mails to all households the quarter-inch-thick Blue Book voter’s guide, which explains as simply as possible the pros and cons of every measure.
After reading the Blue Book’s one-page explanation, my guess is Amendment R would allow the state to quit collecting a tax from people who lease land from the government — such as cattle ranchers or small farmers — if the cost to collect the tax is greater than the tax itself.
The Blue Book’s argument for Amendment R reads in part: “The majority of possessory interests in the state are for agricultural leases, many of which owe less than $10 in property taxes. The cost of administering this tax — mailing notices, maintaining tax rolls, and collecting and enforcing the tax — often exceeds this amount.”
The argument against it: “Simple fairness demands that all businesses and individuals pay taxes, no matter how small.”
So how you vote on Amendment R depends on what you think is fair. But you wouldn’t know that by simply looking at the ballot.
How many of us have the time and the bandwidth to master the Blue Book? My hunch is not many. And that results in what you might call 50 percent voters: They understand about half the measures on a ballot, and guess at all the rest.
Amendment 2, the anti-gay measure that earned Colorado the “hate state” label in 1992, is a good illustration of the consequences. The negative wording on that measure was confusing, and many people likely flipped a coin, or voted for the anti-discrimination measure when they really meant to vote against it.
Educating yourself about important ballot measures is a small price to pay for the privilege of living in a democracy, many would say. Others would say that’s why we elect lawmakers — so they can make the informed choices for us.
I don’t know the answer. I do know that when I want to complicate my life, I look in the electronics aisle at Office Depot. I shouldn’t have to look in the envelope containing my sample ballot.
Mary Winter (mwinte@aol.com) of Denver, a former Rocky Mountain News writer, works for . She writes for the op-ed page twice a month.
