Election Day

I remember the first time I voted.  It was at a school along the road from where we lived in Woking, Surrey.  There were two names on the ballot; one was a managing director and the other was a postman.  It turned out the postman was the Conservative and the MD the Labour candidate.  Naturally we mixed them up as there was no information other than their names and professions.  We marked the ballot with a pencilled "X" against the name with the stub of pencil that was affixed to the desk with a string.  True sophistication!

Now look at the system in California.  Here are two cards about 18 inches by 12; each with stuff on both sides.  And not just one candidate but several.

Here, for instance, is the choice for President; not just the two we all hear about but another five to consider.
The other items are choices for supervisors, school board members, sheriffs and the like.  Also several voter initiatives like Proposition 30, which is put on the ballot by Governor "Moonbeam" Brown.  He wants to tax anyone making over $250,000 p.a. for seven years to pay for schools.  He also wants to increase our sales taxes by a quarter percent.  These measures are just "temporary!"  Of course, nowhere does it mention that they already spend a huge amount on schools for really poor results.  Do they truly think that more money is going to fix a broken system?
Voting here is not for the fainthearted as you can see, and surely we've reached the stage where we need to test people to see if they are capable of the challenge.  Of course, that would mean a lot of stupid people unable to vote anymore, and we wouldn't want that would we?