California is a strange place

I spent my weekend trying to decide how to vote. In San Francisco, there are:

• 17 state propositions
• 1 regional proposition
• 24 local propositions

That list, of course, doesn't even include candidates for office.

My ballot is 4 legal-size pages long, printed front and back. The voter guide from the state (which includes propositions, general info, overview of state bond debt, and 1 page of US Senate candidate statements) is 224 pages. I hear the local guide is 300 pages (but fortunately you can opt-out of having that dead tree mailed to you.)

If you're curious, here's all the state propositions, rendered in haiku. Because.

The legislative analyst(s?) who write the analysis of each of the propositions had a good time this year. They actually do a fairly good job of putting the legalese into a readable summary. For instance, I now know how adult jail sentencing works, and what exactly e-cigarettes are. Hooray for education.

Other things explained:
"How do Individuals Use Marijuana?"
"Adult films are also commonly called 'pornography'"

While I support being more involved in democracy, with 42 measures, if you spent only 10 minutes reading each one (the summary, the analysis, maybe glance through the statements for and against and the rebuttals), that still requires 7 hours. How many people will spend that much time? Let alone hunt down other voter guides and read other opinions.