Voter's Guide To Not Getting A Lemon

Interminable courses of political television advertising, mailers, robo-calls, Internet ads and testimonials are driving voters away from the polls in droves. Special interests that don't want you to vote are making it harder and harder for voters to stomach confusing contentions, competing claims, finger pointing, and the lack of credible referees. So, please, do vote.

Here's some quick pre-election advice on "safe" voting:

Don't read the mail. Those glossy "slate mailers" that come with your favorite smiling politicians' pictures and ballot recommendations are almost always "paid for" advertisements. Political consultants know that voters believe their locally elected officials. A cottage industry of slate mailers frequently give those politicians free space on a mailer in order to sell nearby space to the highest bidder from either side of a ballot measure. That's why Senator Dianne Feinstein decried a slate mailer with her picture, paid for by Big Oil, that had recommendations that ran counter to her endorsements.

Watch only the last few seconds of political advertisements. All political advertising is carefully crafted by polling and focus group research to tell voters exactly what they want to hear. At the end of an ad the real donors must make themselves known. Often these donors are disguised in long confusing names. Listen for these words: "Major Funding By."

Understand the media's biases and tendencies. Newspaper editorial endorsements have also traditionally been a credible source for weeding through a confusing ballot. Inceasingly, though, financially beleaguered newspapers and the publishers who oversee the editorial pages have a tendency to oppose new taxes, particularly ones applying to their corporations, because it hurts their financial bottom line and those of their advertisers. Editorial pages also tend to want to be relevant and go with winners. In the case of candidates, perhaps the winners will listen more closely to their editorials in the future. (It's hard to fathom the San Francisco Chronicle's recent endorsement of Arnold Schwarzenegger otherwise.) Newspapers also have other financial interests. In the case of the opposition by newspapers that own television stations to the campaign financing limits in California's tough Proposition 89, the newspapers should have disclosed their cross ownership interest in television stations. Proposition 89's limits on corporate spending on ballot measures would have cut this year's California political advertising budget in half. That affects the bottom line of television stations. Editorial boards like to believe they are not influenced by such factors, but they should have disclosed their cross ownership just like they do when taking positions on FCC policy regarding television station cross ownership rules.

Nonpartisan groups like the League of Women Voters put out balanced, nonpartisan guides to state ballots. These trusted sources are increasingly the ones you can count on.

Voting takes a lot longer than it used to. And there are plenty of reasons for the skeptical not to vote tomorrow. The best reason to go to the polls is that election day is the one day voters can sock it to the special interests groups that have control over lawmaking and lawmakers every other day of the year. It's a right and sacred honor of being American. Please, don't let it go.