Some thoughts on the California primary....

Well, today is the day of the California primary--as it is the primary for seven other states. And I will say that yes, I did vote. Actually, there's an interesting story regarding today's voting experience.

When I first registered to vote in 1984, I registered as a Republican. I went through the list of the issues back then in 1984--abortion, gun control, taxes, education, environment, and such, and looked at where I stood regarding those early issues and whether I was more closely aligned to the Democratic Party, or Republican Party. I was middle of the road back then. I chose Republican back then because both my parents were registered as Republican. After voting for Reagan in the 84 elections, I came to realize that the Democrats were having more fun in the presidential primaries than the Republicans. I mean, in the 1988 elections, the Republicans were hauling out the wimpy George H.W. Bush Senior for their primary, while the Democrats had Al Gore, Paul Tsongas, Jesse Jackson, Paul Simon--look at all the delightful flavors I could chose. In the 1988 elections, I decided to switch to the Democratic Party. My reason to switch to the Democrats may have also been influenced by the fact that my younger sister Kris had chosen Republican, and all my uncles, aunts, and cousins were also Republican.

Since then, I have always thought I was registered as a Democrat. It was an interesting situation for me, considering that I to choose between Phil Angelides and Steve Westly for the Democratic candidate for governor. And I still could not decide. Well, I went in to vote, and then discovered that my party affiliation was changed to non partisan. I don't know when I changed my party affiliation, or if I may have changed it on a spur-of-the-moment during the 2000 or 2004 elections, but I'm now a non-partisan voter. Which means I couldn't vote for the Democratic candidate for governor.

I could have changed it on the voter registration rolls there, but decided against it. I'm still not too thrilled with the Democratic candidates for this primary--either Angelides, Westly, Feinstein, or any of the other Democratic candidates for Secretary of State, Lt. Governor, Attorney General, or even House of Representatives. Come November, I'll certainly vote Democratic for the simple fact of getting rid of Schwarzenegger in the governor's office, and the Republican congressmen in Washington. I voted against all bond issues as a means to reduce our California debt. There were some local judicial appointments that I just randomly chose. The one candidate that I specifically chose was Ken Yeager for the Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors, and I based that choice on the fact that he was my Political Science 100W instructor at San Jose State.

So that was a little of my voting experience today. Was it right or wrong--I can't say. I imagine my own experience is similar to many others who step into the voting booth to choose the local candidates and measures. How many people actually go through and read these ballots--especially the arguments for and against the measures and local candidates? Or do people simply vote for their party affiliation on local candidates? I would say that state and national politics are a little different--the issues become rather broad, and are covered in greater detail by the media. But even the state and national politics can become a convoluted mess when you have two Democratic Party primary candidates with views that are so similar that you might as well flip a coin to chose? Or you get a Republican incumbent who is the only candidate listed for an office, and you're not too thrilled with his performance. I guess we all have our own idiosyncrasies when choosing our elected officials.