One of the byproducts of Proposition 13 was a reversal of voter apathy in California – and it’s hoped the interest in balloting that it generated will be contagious this fall around the country. Here in Utah we have a primary election besides the general election in November. Our elections may lact a headliner like Proposition 13 but there definitely will be some spirited contests and important offices to fill. The California vote, according to some statistics just made available, was a real tonic for voter apathy that has plagued the electorate there and elsewhere in the nation in recent years. Although less than half the 1978 primary elections have been held so far and turnout data from them is still incomplete, it looks as though tax-limiting Prop 13 had real pulling power. While voter tumouts in most other states continued their steady decline from previous elections, the pattern was broken in California. Nearly 60 percent of registered voters, and 34.7 percent of the state’s voting age population, trooped to the pools to pull the lever for or against a property tax reduction, according to a preliminary analysis by the Committee for the Study of the American Electorate, which tracks turnout trends nationwide. In both categories, that represents a significant increase over turnout for the 1974 primary in Califomia, the last held in a nonpresidential year, although it is roughly comparable to the 1970 turnout. What makes California look like a paragon of voter participation is the record in other big states this year. In Ohio, for instance, only 15.5 percent of the voting age population went to the polls for this year’s primaries, compared with 22.8 percent four years ago. In Illinois, the figure was 14.5 percent this year and 19.7 percent in 1974. In New Jersey, it was a dismal 11.5 this year versus 18 percent four years ago. In Iowa and Texas, turnout was actually up slightly over 1974, but they were exceptions to the general trend – and not as dramatic as California. I’s too soon to predict whether voter-initiated tax propositions that will be appearing on general election ballots in a number of states will have the same salutary effect on tumout as Prop 13 in California, but the possibility clearly exists. “Voters are smart,” says political analyst Richard Scammon. “When there’s something really interesting on the ballot, they come out and vote. When it’s just a bunch of hambones, they don’t. “It’s a wonderful dilemma for the liberals, who believe in popular govemment until it produces a result they don’t like.”