Lights, Ballot, Action! Voters Land Big Role

The measures are complicated and the ballot will be lengthy, but now that California’s primary election is held earlier in the campaign year, voters and officials say casting a ballot today offers voters an opportunity to make a difference.

Besides a heated presidential race, there are measures that will help determine furiously debated topics such as whether to move forward with an El Toro airport or recognize same-sex marriages in California. Before the weather forecast brightened, officials worried that the threat of wet would keep many of Orange County’s 1,228,575 registered voters at home.

“It’s hard enough to get people out to vote,” said Marge England, former president of the League of Women Voters in central Orange County. “It’s a matter of priorities. . . . I’m hoping the interest in the presidential contest will bring more people out.”

Beyond the presidential race, officials hope voters will take the time to go to Web sites such as https://www.smartvoter.org--a League of Women Voters site that capsulizes local and state issues and candidates and also lists polling places--and cast learned votes about smaller-scale topics and candidates.

“We have a lot of people who think the only thing that’s important is the president,” Orange County Registrar of Voters Rosalyn Lever said. “There are a lot of issues that are so important to everyone . . . that aren’t so obvious.”

Locally, there’s a lot to sift through.

There’s Measure F, written by a coalition of South County cities hoping to halt plans for a new airport at the closed El Toro Marine Corps Air Station. There’s a proposal that could kill a new Wal-Mart in Huntington Beach. And there’s a $10-million school bond measure in Anaheim. The list goes on.

Statewide, there are 20 ballot measures. There’s Proposition 22, written to establish in California that only a man and a woman can constitute a legitimate marriage; critics call it anti-gay. There’s Proposition 1A, which would allow Indian tribes to operate slot machines and card games on their lands in California.

And don’t forget--if you’ve even heard of--Proposition 23, which would give voters the option of choosing “none of the above” on major state and federal elections.

And there are more third party candidates than there have been in decades.

Joan Taylor Knox, 70, of Huntington Beach watches C-Span to learn about the national issues and pores over newspapers to make sense of the local ones.

“It’s very confusing. If you look at the pros and cons, unless you are well-educated about the issues, you’ve got a problem. I read everything and hope that I’m getting someplace,” she said.

Knox says she’s worried that voters will not take the primary seriously enough, nor fully grasp that the earlier date means greater influence over the national outcome.

“This is a turning point in [California] politics,” Knox says. “I’m just hoping it doesn’t rain.”

* Live coverage of the Measure F vote and El Toro airport debate is available on the Web at http://video.nohib.com/eltoro. Immediate election returns on Measure F and local races as well as new El Toro Insider columns updated throughout the day. Hear audio feeds with airport election analysis from Times reporters and join the election night discussion in the El Toro chat room.