Patt Morrison waggles a finger at mail-in voters who jumped the gun:

Now aren't you sorry?

Two or three weeks ago, maybe even earlier, you zipped through that absentee ballot, check check check, and hustled it off to the mailbox as if you were claiming a lottery prize.

And see what you missed? So much has happened since then that it's barely the same election it was on Jan. 7.

Also on the Op-Ed page, author David Callahan sees a sea change in U.S. businesses' attitudes toward their role in society, and David A. Lehrer and Joe R. Hicks of Community Advocates Inc. urge the state Senate to kill a bill that would require nonprofits to disclose employees' gender, race, ethnicity and orientation. Rosa Brooks proclaims her support for all things Obama, and cartoonist Matt Davies watches the Bush administration navigate the twin specters of war and recession.

The editorial board finds that the front-loaded primary schedule has been a surprisingly good deal for voters, and pokes fun at Huntington Beach for its trademark battle with a a Santa Cruz beachwear shop. On a more serious note, it condemns Sacramento for failing to pass a major healthcare reform bill:

Whatever direction the conversation takes, [Assembly Speaker Fabian] Nuñez and [Gov. Arnold] Schwarzenegger should keep the focus on comprehensive reform and the notion of shared responsibility. Their great achievement was forging a broad coalition for change. Their greatest failure would be letting it disintegrate.

Readers rebuke Melody Petersen's Op-Ed on the pharmaceutical industry. "Petersen does a disservice, through bias, ignorance or her profit motive, to an industry that is heavily regulated," writes Angelo P. Calfo. "If she had her way, healthcare professionals would be spending their weekends digging herbs."