[So Cal Rocket]

The process will only be difficult for those people who have not looked at the Sample Ballot that will be mailed to them several weeks before the election.

What I'm most concerned with, however, is once people have found their candidate on the ballot and pulled the lever for him/her, that they will stop... and not cast their votes for the two important Propositions that also will appear on the ballot:

Ward Connerly's initiative forbidding the state to collect racial information & a Dem-sponsored initiative changing the requirement to pass a budget from 2/3 to 55%.

[heleny]

Ward Connerly's initiative forbidding the state to collect racial information & a Dem-sponsored initiative changing the requirement to pass a budget from 2/3 to 55%.

No, that 55% initiative is still in the signature-collecting stage. It could not possibly appear on this ballot, though it could appear on the March primary if they get it certified at least 131 days before March 2, 2004. Connerly's Racial Privacy Initiative (RPI, aka CRENO) is #54.It's getting some coverage in the news and on FR, but the other proposition is not getting much coverage.

Propsition #53 is a legislative referendum to dedicate an increasing percentage of the budget to "infrastructure," which includes transportation, roads, water, parks, schools, etc., up to 3%, and allows the legislature to decide how to spend the money.

The idea is that we pass water bonds, school bonds, and transportation bonds almost ever election, so why not just dedicate a permanent budget for those projects instead of asking voters each time. Of course, the 3% doesn't preclude additional bonds.