Over the weekend I sent in my mail-in ballot for the Election this week. (PSA: If you haven’t voted, make sure you vote on Tuesday!). I feel that voting is a critical responsibility for all citizens in our democracy. It’s not just a right or a privilege, but an obligation we all take on to become educated about critical issues and make our voice heard.

However, the level of voter control given to California voters through the ballot proposition mechanism seems entirely inappropriate and misguided to me. I’m a reasonably intelligent person and I try hard to be well-informed on national, state and local issues. But making sense of the variety of ballot initiatives in front of California voters is simply untenable.

This election, there are 11 statewide propositions (there would have been 12, but the Supreme Court struck one down). These are in addition to the numerous state and local races, many of which receive so little coverage it’s hard to tell where the candidates stand as well as local ballot proposals. It is simply too much to expect citizens who have other jobs to invest the required time to become properly informed on all of these issues. Many of these issues are complex and nuanced and deserve more time and attention than most of us can afford to give them.

That is fundamentally why we have a representative democracy and not a direct democracy. We don’t ask citizens to vote on every issue we must tackle. Not because we don’t trust our citizens, but because we know that the issues require more time and attention than we can all give. That’s why we elect representatives who can devote their full time and attention to a full understanding of the issues.

I fully believe in democracy as the best form of government humankind has devised — but we also need to realize the limitations of even an informed and engaged citizenry. This weekend was my bi-annual reminder that we still have that balance wrong in parts of the US — and that’s it’s up to us to continue to improve on our democracy.

Which brings me back to the more important message: don’t forget to vote!