I don't know what to vote for

[jethrien]

I made my decision for the presidential vote months ago. I'll sit down this weekend and do a little research and confirm my intentions for Senate and the House. And apparently I only have one choice for Freeholder.

It's the propositions that have me totally confused.

I spent about twenty minutes last night trying to tease apart the actual statements and the descriptive text to understand what they mean. Not only is it difficult to understand what the underlying issue is, they're written with so many twists that it's hard to tell what the "yes" or "no" means, even if you know where you stand on the issue. (I want bonds? I want to be able to vote whether to create bonds? I want the state to be able to create bonds, which will then be subject to vote? I want to create an amendment which will allow the state to be able to create bonds, which will then be subject to vote? I want Cthulhu to eat the legislators who want an amendment which will allow the state to be able to create bonds, which will then be subject to vote?)

And the worst part is, in all the questions, I suspect that simply understanding the issue wouldn't help. They sound to me like the opening salvoes of someone else's political battle - that is, these votes are intended to create the opportunity for someone to do something that is not referred to at any point in this statement. None of them are about issues - they're all about tinkering with the proper way to do things (who can create bonds, how judges are chosen, who chooses the school board). Because I don't know anything about the internal manuvering, I have no idea what real world impact any of this will have.

Some thoughts:
1) I'm an Ivy League grad who interned in fixed income, and I can't figure out what any of this actually means. Which means that 99% of the voters will probably also not be able to understand this. And because of the way the question's worded, I suspect a large percentage will end up voting for the opposite of what they think they are voting for. I'm still not positive that I'm not in both groups.
2) I'm living in a heavily democratic-leaning district. These are the one place where my vote might actually matter.
3) Because I'm guessing most people will vote randomly or incorrectly, any vote I make will probably get completely lost in the random static.

Cheerful, no?

Comments

[jethrien.livejournal.com]

Yeah, that sounds about right.

[jeths-mom.livejournal.com]

I think that may be true of North Jersey. I'm 100% sure it's true of Rhode Island. At least there, you know what you have to do to get what you want. As long as you don't wake up with the horse head...

[jethrien.livejournal.com]

I think there was a recent statistic saying that I live in one of the most corrupt cities in the country. Yay!

Incidentally, the school board question is on the ballot because we haven't had one in ten years. Apparently we're getting to take control back from the state this year. ...Yay?