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In California, pizza and wine help the epic ballot go down: ‘It’s too darn long’

In California, pizza and wine help the epic ballot go down: ‘It’s too darn long’

Posted by John P. Bradford // November 2, 2016

From condoms in porn to recreational cannabis, Californians face the longest-ever guide to this years election. Can a ballot party get them in the mood?

They gathered in the light-filled apartment, armed with the tools of 21st century democracy: smartphones, laptops, wine, pizza and a small bowl of Halloween candy.

Before the night was over, the seven San Franciscans would need them all. Because they hoped to accomplish together what none could imagine doing alone wading through the massive state and city ballots and the record-breaking 2016 voter guides that accompany them.

Joey Nuez picks up theSan Francisco voter guide and ruffles its 316 pages. The Sunday afternoon ballot party is at his place, and the 29-year-old clinical laboratory scientist rigged the television so votersedge.org (strapline: Get the facts before you vote) flashes on the big, flat screen.

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This is so daunting, Nuez says as the party gets going. And it doesnt even look like fun.

The
The two daunting voter guides, which contain information on the 17 state and 25 local ballot measures. Photograph: Josh Edelson for the Guardian

Pity the poor California voter, who faces 17 state ballot measures on 8 November.

Covering topics that include whether to repeal the death penalty or speed it up whether to legalize recreational pot, and whether to charge smokers $2 more in taxes per pack of cigarettes, the measures are explained in the largest state voter guide ever published, a 224-page behemoth.

While youre at it, save some sympathy for voters in San Francisco, a city where democracy is nothing short of bloodsport. Elected officials cannot seem to handle big problems like homelessness or little ones like who should prune the trees.

Their default is to make voters do the heavy lifting themselves. Hence 25 local measures to consider and a ballot so bulky the citys department of elections filmed a video to teach people how to fold it properly to keep the vote-counting machines running smoothly.

The grand total for San Franciscans to master by election day: 42 ballot measures, dissected in 540 pages of the two voter guides. After all that, who has time to pick a president?

The burden for the agencies that shepherd those voter guides the California secretary of states office and the city elections department is a staggering use of resources: 11.4m voter pamphlets, consisting of 2.59bn pages and costing around $16m to print and mail.

A
A party attendee in San Francisco reads through the voter guide. Photograph: Josh Edelson for the Guardian

But at least Californians arent burdened with the kind of laws that suppress voting in other areas, regulations that require photo ID, say, or prohibit early voting. Right?

Not so fast, says Kim Alexander, founder and president of the California Voter Foundation. In the Golden State we have our own unique barriers to voting.

Its an important but complicated job to be a California voter, she said, which is why I write a song.

Yes, a song. Ever since the 2000 election, Alexander has written and performed a new version of the California Proposition Song to help explain the voluminous state ballot to overwhelmed voters. This years takes a good five minutes or so of listening time, but the investment is well worth it.

The chorus explains it all: Its the Proposition Song! You should all be singing along! Cuz the ballot is too darn long!

Oh, were having an election: song explains California propositions

Damian Carroll, a Democratic activist based in Los Angeles county, wrote a haiku for each of the 17 state measures to help voters slog through the ballot. Consider his paired poems for the dueling death penalty measures:

Proposition 62

Vote for this one if

You want to eliminate

The death penalty

Proposition 66

If you want the state

To execute more people

This one is for you

When the haiku came out, a couple people messaged me, You have competition, Alexander recounted. I said, No, its great. A lot of our voting information is text heavy. We live in a time when people dont read as much. Were a visual and auditory society.

And then there is Joe Fox, a Los Angeles Times graphics and data journalist who tweeted out his own personal guide to the propositions. In emojis. Without using the smiling brown pile of feces. Even once.

Joe Fox (@joemfox)

CA ballot
51:
52:
53:
54:
55:
56:
57:
58:
59:
60:
61:
62:
63:
64:
65:
66:
67:

October 11, 2016

For Proposition 60, which would require actors in adult films to wear condoms, Fox used the symbol of two smiling faces joined by a heart and the one of a bright red balloon. Proposition 62 shows a big red X beside a skull and crossbones.

Still, its hard to beat the ballot party an intensely local meeting of minds designed to help friends, neighbors, even co-workers get their democratic duty done. The California Voter Foundation posts a party how-to on its website, and Alexander is a big fan.

Theres proposition and pints parties, ballots and beer. Its funny how alcohol seems to go along with so many of these, said Alexander, who attended a party on 19 October. I brought my guitar. We sang the proposition song together.

Judi Brown is co-founder of CivicMakers, a communications and innovation firm that she describes as solving public problems with empathy. She facilitated a ballot party in Berkeley and one in San Francisco. John Myers, the Los Angeles Times Sacramento bureau chief, has hosted proposition parties for the past decade.

Attendees
Attendees keep reading at the voter party, organized by Anne Barber and Joey Nuez. Photograph: Josh Edelson for the Guardian

It took Nuez and company four hours to get through the San Francisco and California propositions on Sunday night. They read aloud from the governments voter guides and others they found online. They checked which officials and organizations that supported the various measures.

And they tapped their own experiences particularly when it came to San Franciscos Proposition F: Shall the City amend the Charter to allow San Francisco residents to vote on local candidates and local ballot measures if they are US citizens, at least 16 years old and registered to vote?

Of course they should, said an indignant Anne Barber, 33, who works in biodiversity informatics and organized the ballot party at her and Nuezs apartment. I was 17 when it was Bush versus Gore. I had some cruddy Burger King job. I paid taxes. And it rankled me that I couldnt vote.

Software engineer Dustin Kimmel pushed back. And his argument was particularly on point on a night like this, when he carved out four hours to talk about things like parcel taxes and competitive bidding for affordable housing projects on city-owned property.

We have to have this thing just to get through the ballot measures, said Kimmel, 37. Will a 16-year-old do that?

Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/nov/01/how-to-survive-californias-epic-ballot-with-a-party-a-pizza-and-a-haiku

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