A Reflection on Today’s Special Election

A Reflection on Today’s Special Election

1/26/10

Hopefully you cast your ballot with confidence in today’s special election. Hopefully you studied the pros and cons of the two measures, discussed these issues with friends and colleagues, and came to a conclusion based upon known facts and your own good judgment. 

And while we at Healthy Democracy Oregon hope this is the case, we know that for a great many voters it wasn’t.  For many, it was a very complicated election, with tough choices, tough trade offs, and a scarcity of high quality information to rely on (or at least that was very easy to find).  Some radio programs and newspapers did have some excellent in-depth coverage, for the most part however, this election was business as usual—a deluge of political ads and tons of conflicting claims.

Regardless of how the vote turns out, it’s important we remember the fact that some people really weren’t confident about their decision and others didn’t even vote.  

Undoubtedly, some voters didn’t trust any of the information they came across and as a result didn’t even want to try learning about the measures.  Some voted, without finding information they trusted or feeling unsure about the measure (past polls indicate this to be the case). Others may not have voted because they simply didn’t feel well enough informed. 

Other voters were torn between two sets of seemingly contradictory information. On OPB radio last week, OSU political scientist Bill Lunch talked about the “cross pressured voters” – voters who had a very hard time deciding which way to vote on these measures. He said some of these voters wouldn’t resolve that tension and as a result wouldn’t vote.

Here’s an example of something that probably didn’t help: The ‘No’ campaign ran a ‘fold-over’ ad on the front page of the Oregonian citing the editorial board stance for that position. At the same time, the ‘Yes’ campaign mailed fliers that had a quote from the Oregonian, appearing next to a  big “Yes,” making it appear the newspaper endorsed that position. Later, the Yes campaign also took out the same front page ‘fold-over’ ad.

Does this seem confusing to you? It does to us. And, confused, overwhelmed or lacking a lot of confidence is not where voters ought to be when it comes to making these kinds of high-stakes public decisions.

Can we do better than this?  Do voters deserve better than this?  We absolutely think so on both accounts.

With the Citizens’ Initiative Review later this year, we’re setting out to prove we can do  better by providing clear, trustworthy, and well reasoned information to voters statewide on two or three of measures on this November’s ballot.  This is part of the Citizens’ Initiative Review pilot project approved by the State Legislature last June in HB 2895.  

We can’t tell you how many people asked us if we were going to organize Reviews of measure’s 66 & 67.  Indeed, we wish there was a Review of these measures—what a breath of fresh air if our state had high-quality public reviews providing reliable information to voters!  This Fall, we’ll be able to just that. Stay tuned.