Paso Robles groundwater basin district’s creation is anti-democratic
About 50 years ago, as a civil rights activist, fellow activists and I marched in the face of brutal resistance to establish voting rights for disenfranchised blacks in the South.
“One man, one vote” is the standard of democracy. It remains the standard. There is no such thing as “hybrid” democracy. The democratic process requires all decisions that affect the Paso Robles groundwater basin be one person, one vote.
This district’s hybrid structure, which is touted as a model for all future water districts, is no more democratic than the Three-Fifths Compromise that Northern and Southern states agreed to during the 1787 Constitutional Convention, which counted slaves as three-fifths of a person for purposes of determining representation.
One person, one vote for all collective decisions. Vote “no” (while your individual vote still counts).
Clifford Vaughs, Templeton
This story was originally published February 25, 2016 at 4:22 PM with the headline "Paso Robles groundwater basin district’s creation is anti-democratic."