Confusing Clutter

In most places, the town-meeting style of democracy has long since gone the way of the cucking stool. Its heritage is the referendum, an instant, pain less substitute that leaves discussion of controversial issues to the press and their resolution to the curtained conscience of the voter. Sometimes the issues attract as much attention as the candidates, but more often they are so trivial--or so confusing--that they should never have been put on the ballot at all. Last week's election had a few of both kinds.

In defiance of all pollsters' predictions, Californians, by a 3-to-2 margin, voted against the CLEAN initiative (named for its sponsor, the California League Enlisting Action Now), which would have re-enforced police powers to ban pornographic literature--and, said opponents, would have outlawed just about half of a ten-year-old's reading list. A few voters may have been confused by the question's wording, which required CLEAN supporters to vote for an "Obscenity Initiative." Now who would vote for obscenity?

In New York City, the most heated issue concerned the fate of Mayor John Lindsay's civilian-dominated police review board, set up last summer to hear and sift charges of police malfeasance or brutality. Most top politicians of both parties campaigned for the board. The police bitterly opposed it, and the majority (63%) of voters agreed that the board would inhibit the cop on the beat and send the crime rate soaring. The board was summarily killed.

Taking from Caesar. Many voters saw in legalized gambling a fiscal panacea whereby they would not only have to render less unto Caesar but also--with luck--Caesar might render something unto them. In New York, a state lottery for the support of education received overwhelming endorsement, while in New Jersey, night harness racing was approved, opening the track--and the heavily taxed parimutuel windows--to many people who could not make it in the daytime.

Far too many of the issues merely cluttered up the ballot. In one of the oddest measures to appear on any ballot, the citizens of Dearborn, Mich., deliberated on whether the U.S. should pull out of Viet Nam. A majority--56.5%--gravely declared against unilateral withdrawal.

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