My sample ballot in the city of Los Angeles tells me that I have dozens of votes to cast on Tuesday. Hmm...I will soon have a PhD in political science and I have no idea what most of these votes are even about. That makes me pretty normal.

With all the hub-bub over the Presidential election it is easy for other important decisions to be overshadowed. What is a bit disturbing is that your typical voter on Tuesday will walk into the poling place and, underneath the office of President, do one of three things (or a combination): either not vote, vote entirely for one party (when available), or vote on some arbitrary criteria – like who comes first on the ballot.

We call these races – dog catcher, mosquito abatement board, county judge, etc. - 'down ballot' races. Political scientists know that voters handle the down ballot issues this way because they have actually looked at the ballots of voters. Unfortunately, no matter what a voter does down ballot – each is problematic. Voting the party line probably makes the most sense. Political party affiliation tells you a lot about a candidate. There is probably no better way for a voter to know whether or not a candidate shares her beliefs. Unfortunately – down ballot, many offices are required by law to be non-partisan. This is a ridiculously bad idea. Without partisan information – voters have pretty much nothing on which to base their decisions. Obviously, some arbitrary decision like who comes first on the ballot, or job title does not make a lot of sense. It might be better than not voting at all though, because there is pretty good chance that the voters that are actually making informed decision ons these issues do not share your values. People that care enough about politics to find out about these down ballot races are almost always far away from the center of public opinion. There is very solid evidence for this. So, the alternative between voting arbitrarily and letting near-extremists make decisions does not leave very attractive options.

Unfortunately, considering the total ignorance under which almost all voters cast votes for these races, these offices can be very consequential. In fact, there is an argument to be made that these obscure offices, especially those in the state legislature and county supervisor positions, have much more impact on your typical person's lives than the President of the United States. Of course Presidents can and does make grave decisions and can, ultimately, decide the fate of millions. But the freehand of the President in making these decisions is debatable and how far the Presidency will extend its reach depends greatly on the particular President.

The over-abundance of offices is a peculiarly American phenomenon - nowhere else in the world are voters asked to vote so frequently or for so many different offices and decisions. The ballot also grows longer in states like California – where decades ago Progressive reformers thought democracy would best operate by putting as many decisions as possible in the hands of voters, rather than elected officials.

It is also unlikely that the state will anytime soon undo the crazy system by which voters are asked to make so many uniformed decisions. Of course, we can't blame voters for paying so little attention to these down ballot races: one reason the Presidential contest is so interesting is because it is always relatively competitive. The majority of all other races: Congressional, legislative, etc., are not. Of course, part of the reason for this is that voters pay so little attention to the races that the basic mechanisms of party and incumbency usually determine the winner. If voters paid more attention – we'd probably see more competitive races.

I haven't offered too many solutions then. If we had more competitive races, voters would pay more attention, if voters paid more attention, we'd have more competitive races. If races were partisan, voters would have more information, but races are not partisan so voters do not have that information – nor are they likely to gather much information during their busy lives.

None of this is going to change between now and Tuesday – but it is worth paying attention. Locally, many of these contests are very important. For LA County Supervisor, a seat that has a bigger constituency than many U.S. Senators, Bernard Parks and Mark Ridley-Thomas are battling it out in the type of knock-down, drag out fight that is far more interesting and rough than anything that McCain or Obama can put together. And Proposition 8 is an issue that will have an immediate and direct impact on the lives of millions of Californians. Unfortunately, most voters will approach these votes, and many others, in relative or complete ignorance.