Blanking on whom to vote for

Whenever I go to my neighborhood voting place and get a Democratic ballot, as I did last week ? waking up several poll workers who seemed pleased at human company ? I always think of Chuck Jones, the wonderful elf who co-parented Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck and Elmer Fudd and the Road Runner. He lived among us for four decades in Corona del Mar, a fervent Democrat in a sea of Republicans.

Although he didn’t surface very often in his Cameo Shores neighborhood, he once told me that he liked to send for the studio limo to drive him to the voting place and wait in front while he filled out his Democratic ballot. This pleased his sense of irony.

I don’t have access to a limo, but I like to think of his limo waiting for me while the poll workers dig up a Democratic ballot.

Rehashing a week-old election is rather like wrapping the garbage in yesterday’s newspaper, but a couple of sidelights seem worth noting, especially the compulsion to vote for offices where you haven’t the foggiest notion of the qualifications of the various candidates. Faced with leaving a ballot blank under such circumstances, many of us ? and I include myself ? feel compelled to vote in total ignorance.

Like the friend who asked me if I had any feelings about the candidates for the Democratic Central Committee. He didn’t and so was ready to go with my suggestions. I didn’t, either, but when I told him to just leave it blank, he said: “I don’t want to waste my vote.” He didn’t finish that sentence, which would logically go on “so I’m just going to vote in the dark and hope I hit it lucky.”

I can’t avoid the feeling that a large percentage of our public officials win office by this route. Like the recent school board member in Orange who never made a public appearance or took a public stand before he was elected and isn’t even visible on the website for the school district.

In past years, I have voted for people running for obscure offices because of their listed occupation, because their name reminded me of a loved and long-dead uncle, because I once won money on a horse of that name ? or just because they were incumbents. If they really want to do it again, I reasoned, why should I stand in their way?

But I didn’t go that route last week.

Instead, I left quite a few blanks. That left me with two questions. First was the nagging ? and irrational ? feeling that unless a ballot was completely filled out, it wouldn’t be counted. And, second, asking whether there was any reason to vote for someone who was unopposed on the ballot.

So I called Neal Kelley, the Orange County Registrar of Voters, for answers and got, instead, Brett Rowley in his office. Rowley assured me that if you only voted on one office and left the rest of ballot choices blank, that one vote would be counted.

The answer to the unopposed candidate question got a little murky. The code says a winning candidate must have a majority of the votes cast, so it would seem wise to mark the ballot for an unopposed candidate ? if, of course, you approve of him ? against the possibility of enough write-in votes to muddy up the majority.

Among the other voting odds and ends I clipped last week was Los Angeles Times columnist Al Martinez contrasting voting interest in the just completed “American Idol” contest with several other elections a little more related to the democratic process. An astonishing 64 million votes were cast to select the recent “American Idol” winner, more than those cast for any U.S. president, ever. A 29-year-old singer from Alabama pulled 14 million more votes than George W. Bush in his first run for the presidency. And 63.6 million more than the total ballots ? representing 27% of the electorate ? cast in Orange County last week.

A few other election notes.

We seem out to top ourselves each new election in creating and delivering mendacious campaign ads by mail, print, TV and radio. I was going to save a batch of them to write from, but they stunk up the place so badly. I chucked them off. You know what I mean; you got them too.

Especially rotten were the fliers on behalf of Steve Westly against Phil Angelides and the attacks on John Moorlach. Neither worked, but they lowered the bar for sleaze.

It’s early enough to hope that the candidates in November won’t try to drag it down further ? especially in the face of evidence that it doesn’t work. And especially, also, in the critical elections that will take place in both Costa Mesa and Newport Beach.

It’s early, and the heat hasn’t been turned up yet, but Barbara Venezia, who is running for the Newport Beach City Council from my district, is off to a good non-sleaze start. Her first flier deals with issues, where they belong. Up front.