EDITORIAL - CHANGE NEEDED IN INITIATIVE PROCESS AND VOTING HOURS

By Wren Osborn

Early voting at the San Diego Registrar of Voters, where some people waited up to six hours in line.

December 1, 2008 (El Cajon) — I cannot understand why it is so easy to change
the California Constitution. "All it takes is an initiative with 50% of
the vote plus one voter and voila a new amendment to the Constitution." Yes,
it takes 8% to qualify the proposition instead of the usual 5% but does that
bring mature reflection to the process? "I would say not." Especially
since the process is now dominated by moneyed interests who hire paid signature
gatherers -- We've created a slam dunk process for those with money.

And speaking of initiatives. How come we allow out of state money to fund
a STATE initiative in a STATE election? -- Isn't this supposed to be a process
for Californians to change California law for Californians?

And then there are the rich seeking to line their pockets, i.e., Proposition
10, the T. Boone Pickens special; Proposition 7 may have had good intentions
but why was a billionaire from Arizona funding it?

Methinks there are some changes needed in the initiative process.
Money controls all, subverting the original intent of the initiative process,
which I thought was to allow citizens to go around legislative obstruction
to get laws needed by the people. Fat chance of that happening today unless
we limit the power that money wields in the initiative process.

And while we're at it let's make some changes in our voting laws. We
need to be able to vote on a nonworking day. Declare voting day a holiday
or move it to Saturday or Sunday -- Increase voting hours, do a better
job of recruiting volunteers in order to have more polling places, encourage
the suggestion from federal lawmakers to expand early voting or all of the
above.

No standing in line for hours to vote. No one turned away because the
polling place can't handle the crowd.

I also like the idea of automatic, universal registration to vote. "It
would be harder to purge voters." It could encourage voting.

Wren Osborn is an El Cajon resident. The opinions expressed
here are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of
East County Magazine. If you would like to submit an editorial for
consideration, please contact editor@eastcountymagazine.org.