A majority of voters in California approved Proposition 14 this week. Prop 14 changes the way citizens elect the governor, the state legislators, the U.S. senators and representatives.
The old way was to have partisan primaries and a general election open only to winners of a partisan primary and to independents. The new way is to have a single open primary, from which only the top two vote-getters advance to a general election run-off. The figure below (source here) displays the differences.
I find it encouraging that those who proposed and passed Prop 14 have traced California’s recent political problems back to the electoral process itself. This is a cut above “throwing the bums out.” We need to throw out the way we throw the bums out.
But the idea is to replace it with something better. Even with Prop 14, the stakes of winning the general election will remain high, and candidates will discover the best way to win is to appeal fiercely to their partisan base and activists, to special interests, and to swing voters. Prop 14 is a step in the right direction, but it is a very small step.
For all the sound and fury of its proponents and detractors, you wouldn’t know so. Jesse McKinley’s article on Prop 14 in the New York Times begins like this: “The time for tinkering is done. / That was the message Californians sent when they voted Tuesday to radically rejigger elections in the nation’s most populous state.”
My take: The time for tinkering is done, but the tinkering goes on anyway…
Coming soon: A post on why those who are “pro” and those who are “anti” Prop 14 over-perceive and over-state their differences.
October 11, 2010 at 8:26 am
[...] The voters want better rules: California edition [...]