I sat down with my ballot and reference materials today, and went through each choice. It took a couple of hours, and only went that fast because I had read some before. Choosing the candidates was relatively easy; but this is California, and that means a host of propositions and measures to vote on, some of them interdependent. A few impressions:

• Some are obvious rich-people-buying-legislation ploys, while others are actual power-to-the-people moves. Others are rich-people-proposing-something-that-sounds-like-the-power-to-the-people-to-confuse-voters initiatives.
• Less confusing, but annoying, are the legislators-dodging-doing-their-own-jobs propositions.
• And let’s not forget the complete-waste-of-time “advisory” initiative.
• It’s often hard to vote simply on principle. I couldn’t vote on improving public transportation and non-car infrastructure without also voting to dump billions more into roads. I was given a choice of helping the homeless in a way I’m skeptical of, or doing nothing to help them (at a government level) at all.
• Schools in California are absolutely dependent on debt. If all the bonds are rejected, will our government finally be forced to put education in the actual budget?

I can’t imagine doing something this complicated just showing up at a voting station. California’s proposition system makes voting far too complex for traditional voting methods. Fixing it will likely require a complex proposition, which will be buried on a ballot with other rival propositions designed specifically to prevent anything from changing.