Comments on: Tonight I’m gonna party like it’s 1798

By: steve weir

steve weir — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 04:54:28 +0000

Ralph, of course, your ideas have a certain appeal to my sense of irony.

By: Ralph Hoffmann, Guest Columnist

Ralph Hoffmann, Guest Columnist — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 01:41:46 +0000

Of course, I was being flippant about such things as endorsing a reverse poll tax, banning divorce, and spousal murder. BTW, when was the amount of money raised dividing what is a misdemeanor and what is a felony? It seems Courts could save money, it this were tied to inflation.

By: steve weir

steve weir — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 01:01:38 +0000

According to the Secretary of State, they are US Citizens, voting age, and not disqualified by serving time for a felony (or on felony parole) or not under a court ordered conservator.

By: J

Wed, 02 Dec 2009 20:43:55 +0000

Steve Weir,

Are they really ‘eligible voters’ or are they ‘people of voting age’? Often the participation levels are better than we understand them to be because we’re comparing the voting population against the census population data that includes non-citizens.

By: steve weir

steve weir — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 18:34:57 +0000

I was being flippant about the reverse poll tax idea.

I use to fret about people not registering and not voting. I’m not so concerned. Given the business need to have a system of voter registration, I cannot think of how we could make registering and voting any easier. I think people have the right to choose not to vote.

We can take some measure of pride knowing that of the top 15 California Counties (representing 84% of the registered voters in the state), Contra Costa consistantly ranks first or second in registration and in voter turn out.

Even with that fact, we have over 200,000 eligible voters in Contra Costa who are not registered.

By: John W

John W — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 17:48:39 +0000

Steve Weir. You’re right. Got the father and son mixed up. Maybe we need a constitutional amendment to prevent sons of past presidents from running for the White House themselves. Would save guys like me from getting their history mixed up and certainly would have saved us a lot of grief from 2001-2008. As for the initiative not being available for federal matters, thank God! Reverse poll tax? It’s sad that so many people don’t vote (including some notable Californians who aspire to high office). On the other hand, I don’t want a bunch of people voting just to be able to say they voted, who don’t know anything about the issues or candidates. Which is why I hate the initiative process. I wonder how many Californians who pontificate about members of Congress not reading the bills they vote on (a very misleading accusation) ever read the propositions they vote on, or know anything more than the misleading TV commercials they see.

By: jeff

jeff — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 16:56:25 +0000

“Hold … journalists’ feet to the fire – call them out when they’re wrong, hold them accountable.”

If that were only possible: it would be wonderful if newspapers actually cared about such things. But absent another member of the established club making an issue about accuracy, there’s little opportunity to challenge those in the industry whose reporting reflects their agendas and biases rather than the kind of journalistic standards that are often touted in theory but ignored in practice. And that is reflected in the public’s assessment of the industry in the Pew surveys.

By: Ralph Hoffmann, Guest Columnist

Ralph Hoffmann, Guest Columnist — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 14:46:16 +0000

Say, Steve, I like your idea about a reverse poll tax; taxing people who don’t vote! That would increase turnout, reduce election cost/voter, and raise government revenue. That’s even better than the proposal, banning divorce in CA, or banning spousal murder, if banning divorce qualifies and passes.

By: steve weir

steve weir — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 03:45:08 +0000

Maybe I’m missing something, but the Sedition act was passed under John Adams (1797 to 180l).

And, the initiative is not available for federal elections. Hay, what about a reverse poll tax?

By: John W

John W — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 00:49:15 +0000

Well, it’s nice to see folks getting creative out there. Is this guy a descendant of J.Q. Adams? Obviously an absurd idea, but I have to admit it has crossed my mind a time or two — especially recently during all the lies about health care legislation and during the 2008 campaign. Actually, I’m thinking about an initiative requiring anybody who votes in an election to pass a test on the items that are on the ballot. Not the kind of literacy tests they had in the South, but a real “are you even semi-informed” test.