It sure was an easy election this time
By Brent E. McCoy thereal@roadrunner.com

The front page of the Oct. 26 issue of the Moorpark Acorn featured a headline which read, "Voters turn down taxes for more services, facilities." I don't remember voting. I read the article, and I know what the outcome was, but I don't know exactly what the question was. You see, I wasn't asked.

Since I wasn't asked, how do we know that my vote wouldn't have made a difference?

The article stated that 400 out of an estimated 15,700 voters were surveyed by Godbe Research. That turns out to be approximately 2.5 percent of the registered voters. Now, 2.5 percent is not a very large number.

In 2000 Al Gore won popular vote by 0.8 percent but lost the electoral vote by about 0.5 percent. Both of these numbers are a lot smaller that 2.5 percent. And this is after the expert pollsters gave Florida to Gore, Bush, Gore and then finally to Bush.

Oh, well, things like this happen. It was probably busy in Florida, and maybe they couldn't find as many as 400 people leaving the polls. After all, in this past "voting," nobody could have found anybody leaving the polls.

I'm sure these little mistakes don't happen often. Every once in a while you might hear the experts proclaim, "Dewey wins!" or "The vote on the future of North Park is going to be close." But it doesn't happen often.

We all know this wasn't a real election or a real vote, but rather a survey. Whether it is more of a survey or more of a vote will depend on how the City Council treats the results. Still, if the future of my town depends on a survey, I would have liked to have been asked. Heck, I'd just like to know what the question was- how was it worded and what sort of intonation was used when it was asked?

One startling fact that the pollsters pulled from the data was that registered Republicans were less likely to approve new taxes than registered Democrats were. I don't know how much this survey cost, but I sure hope they threw that little revelation in for free.

When we're trying to decide the future of Moorpark, 400 people is a pretty trifling group to rely on. Next time that you're with a group of 400 people, keep in mind that one person would be 2.5 percent of the group. Take a look around. If that distinguished-looking lady over there who is trusted by everyone for her good sense and judgment was the one called for the survey, we'll probably be all right. But, if they called the fellow over there with two different colored socks who just locked his keys in the car with the engine running, we just might be in trouble.

I realize that this is a whole lot easier than having to give up 10 whole minutes on a Tuesday to go stand in line and vote. But I don't mind voting. I kind of liked connecting the arrows, and I wouldn't mind if we started using touch screens as long as there was an accompanying paper trail. But the point is, you can choose to vote or not to vote. If you vote, then you live with the outcome. If you don't vote, then you should keep quiet until you get another chance to vote. However, I'm not sure what to do if you're not even asked to vote.

This wasn't a real election. It was merely the gathering of 400 opinions. That's a pretty good start- it just leaves 15,300 more to be heard from. I hope someone asks them.

It's all very confusing. I imagine that even someone like John Adams would have been confused, too, if he hadn't been so convinced that something like this couldn't happen here.