We Know What You Voted For
By Ethen Lieser
AsianWeek Staff Writer
At this November’s elections, voters will know exactly who voted for what. The Board of Supervisors on Monday agreed to print all names of supervisors who endorsed a particular measure in the ballot handbook.
In what was a lugubrious process, Board President Tom Ammiano led the Board through 10 ballot measures with each supervisor voting on whether or not they wished to have their names next to the measures. Supervisor Matt Gonzalez, the most vocal proponent of identifying which supervisors endorsed certain measures, said he didn’t want his name on a ballot measure that he didn’t agree with.
“Why, when we can specify who’s endorsing the item, why would we not want to?” Gonzalez said. “The whole point of the voter information pamphlet is to try to give them information so they can assess how to vote on a measure.”
Supervisors Chris Daly and Aaron Peskin, however, did not want to place supervisors’ names next to the ballot measures because the voters should already know that the majority of the Board voted for the measure. Peskin was also worried about having too much information in the handbook since it has to adhere to a particular word count.
“We ultimately come to a recommendation at the end of the debate,” Daly said. “If that vote is 6-5, then it is still the recommendation of the full Board of Supervisors even if there are five dissenting voices in this chamber … I don’t think it’s about keeping information from voters. As a matter of fact, I pay frequently to have my own ballot arguments in the voter handbooks.”
Mark Leno said the listing of supervisors’ names in the handbook is justified because it would provide voters more information.
“This is just an issue about providing more accurate information as opposed to less,” he said. “With regard to the word count, the word count limits anyone to a certain number of words in an attempt to get out certain information. And this is information, and it probably should be counted.”
An indignant Tony Hall said, “The voters need to know which ones of us are for or against a measure. They are the people who put us in office … this is misleading to voters even if the voter is savvy enough to understand that the Board of Supervisors only means the majority. The voters do not know which individuals on this Board are for or against an argument, and that is paramount in importance to the voters. It is our responsibility to let them know that … what possible reasons could there be for keeping the whole truth from the voters?”
Reach Ethen Lieser at elieser@asianweek.com.
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