I HAVE A THEORY as to why the city of Irvine, deep in the heart of Orange County, was chosen as the California site for Iraqi expatriates participating in Sunday’s election. And it doesn’t have to do with the obvious swords-to-plowshares symbolism of the voting locale: a former Marine Corps air base converted to a university branch campus.

Hold the same vote 500 miles to the north, closer to the Bay Area, and the same electorate that yearns for free rule would have been exposed to a prime example of direct representation run amok: San Francisco’s Board of Supervisors. Talk about a buzz kill for an emerging democracy.