Don't Vote For Pedro

The latest polls are out and the only thing one can say about them is that the peasants are revolting. Every single ballot measure is losing in the polls; even the two drug related ones which are complete opposites of each other. People don't want the consumer-friendly measure but they also don't want the industry-friendly measure: people want no measure. The question is, then, will anyone actually show up to vote their displeasure? Which has kind of been the Governor's game plan all along.

Maybe people will go vote if they find out that voting "no" actually has an effect. According to Jamie Court of ElectionWatchdog.org, voting "no" can be a good thing. Court writes that in the past, when an industry spends a whole wad of dough on getting ballot measures passed only to see them not get passed, they give up. Having spent millions of dollars for nothing, they go back to doing it the old fashioned way, buying off all the politicians. In other words, by voting "yes" we're nothing but enablers, and as Dr. Phil (but not Tom Cruise) would say, that's bad.

One could even extrapolate that if everyone just marches in and votes no on every single measure, every single time, we'd put an end to all this. No more elections every six months, no more annoyingly shrill campaign TV commercials, and no more phone-book sized sample ballots that we never pick up because it makes us think we're studying for a test. And maybe even no more completely meaningless propositions that serve no other purpose than making some "statement."

Or maybe not.