When it comes to voting, we are all taught at a young age by our parents and teachers that it is part of every American's civic duty to vote. Voting is something that a large majority of Americans view as critical and necessary, in order to have your voices heard and policies framed around how we vote. But a growing number of Americans, especially here in California, feel more and more rejected and doubtful that their votes mean anything when state and local leaders ignore the voters and institute their desired policy positions by decree.
In the 2020 and 2016 statewide elections in California, voters were asked to vote on several ballot initiatives, numerous of which would impact public safety. In 2016, we were asked to vote on Proposition 62, which would have outlawed capital punishment in the state. In 2020, voters were asked to vote on Proposition 25, which would have eliminated the cash bail system in the state, to be replaced with a "cashless bail" system.
Proposition 62 was rejected by the voters by an almost 10 percent margin, with 53.6 percent of voters voting to reject the ballot initiative and keep the death penalty alive. Regardless of how one feels about the death penalty, voters wanted to keep it. However, in 2019 California Governor Gavin Newsom officially put an end to the death penalty, by issuing an executive order that ended that practice as well as closing the execution chamber in San Quentin State Prison, which is the only prison in the state that carries out the death penalty for the state.
...plac[es] a moratorium on the death penalty in California. The executive order also calls for withdrawing California’s lethal injection protocols and immediately closing the execution chamber at San Quentin State Prison. The order does not provide for the release of any individual from prison or otherwise alter any current conviction or sentence.
“The intentional killing of another person is wrong and as Governor, I will not oversee the execution of any individual,” said Governor Newsom. “Our death penalty system has been, by all measures, a failure. It has discriminated against defendants who are mentally ill, black and brown, or can’t afford expensive legal representation. It has provided no public safety benefit or value as a deterrent. It has wasted billions of taxpayer dollars. Most of all, the death penalty is absolute. It’s irreversible and irreparable in the event of human error.”
Fast forward to 2020. Proposition 25 was defeated by voters at an even higher margin, with 56.4 percent of voters opposing the transition to a "cashless bail" system that would use a "risk assessment" system for suspects awaiting trial. Given that voters had just lived through the Summer of BLM, it's not surprising that their appetite for letting criminals roam the street wasn't great. But once again, the voice of the voters didn't matter. On Sunday night, a policy of cashless bail was instituted across Los Angeles County.
The zero-bail system, officially dubbed by the Los Angeles Superior Court as Pre-Arraignment Release Protocols, or PARP, largely eliminates the existing cash bail system for all but the most serious of crimes. Most people arrested on suspicion on non-violent or non-serious offenses will either be cited and released in the field or booked and released at a police or sheriff's station with orders to appear in court on a specific date for arraignment once they are actually charged with a crime.
Regardless of how you feel about these two issues, the point is that when voters cast their ballots, they expect, better yet, they DEMAND that their vote is not just counted but that their vote is listened to. When voter turnout for elections drops lower and lower, people wonder why that is. Amongst other things, more and more voters feel like we are being ignored. My wife for years and years has always said there isn't a point to voting because it doesn't matter or doesn't count. My response to her was that she was partially right.
Living in California over the last 30 to 40 years, I've watched as the state has become darker and darker blue. When it comes to Presidential elections, if you are a Republican voting in that election for a fellow Republican, your vote in a sense, doesn't really matter as California will send all of their electoral votes for the Democrat. On the other hand, when it comes to state and local offices and ballot initiatives, it absolutely matters - or I thought it did.
Why do voters even bother to cast their vote, when Governor Newsom and his Democrat party blatantly ignore the will of the voter? And it isn't some one-off abnormality that Newsom can blame for his move on the death penalty. His official statement on it essentially reads, "I don't care how you feel about the death penalty, I don't like it, my party doesn't like it, so I am getting rid of it, sue me." The L.A. County Board of Supervisors said the same thing with their move on the cashless bail. Collectively, they all raised their middle fingers at the voters and did what they wanted, not what we the people wanted.
So again I ask, why do we bother voting? In the 2020 election, in my state assembly district, over 32,000 registered Republicans didn't vote. Our Assemblywoman at the time, Suzette Martinez Valladares, lost her re-election bid by about 500 votes. Now granted, she had a hard fight due to state redistricting, but that does not excuse the 32,000-plus Republicans who decided to stay home and not vote. What makes that statistic worse is that California doesn't have just an election day; we have an election season. Every voter in the state gets a mail-in ballot, regardless if you registered for mail-in ballots or not. Republicans in California have zero excuse for not voting. Not one. Yet we continue to pass up on our civic duties and for what?
The only solution I see is to get involved in politics. And I don't mean that everybody should run for office, but everyone needs to be active when it comes to voting, attending school and water board meetings, city council meetings, and so on. Start holding elected officials accountable, but at the same time, help out those who are doing their jobs well. They still need our support. Maybe, when we vote on ballot propositions and win, instead of a meager margin of victory, we blow out the numbers and the selected will listen.
I don't believe this problem has a simple solution, but we have to start somewhere. And the only thing I can see is a large chunk of Republicans continuing to be the laziest and apathetic body of voters I have ever seen. I have choice words for these people. If you don't vote, you lose your right to speak on these issues. You don't get to judge me or any other voter, because you are too lazy or apathetic to fill out a ballot in the comfort of your own home, walk to the mailbox, and drop a ballot in it. Do the right thing before we can't do it all; I don't know about the rest of you, but I am sick and tired of losing because we keep forfeiting our votes to the other side.
