Cast a vote to make your dream come true.

Byline: DOUG McINTYRE 

THE other night I ate a burrito before hitting the sack. I knew it was a terrible idea, but the damn thing tasted so good.

After tossing and moaning like Octomom in the delivery room I finally passed out and slipped into a vivid Chipotle-induced dream.

It was election day, March 3. I'm in line at my polling place and the line runs down the driveway of my neighbor's garage, down the sidewalk and vanishes around the corner toward Ventura Boulevard. Thousands of Angelenos queue up to cast their ballots for mayor, city attorney, Measure B and all the other offices and propositions.

In my dream I see similar lines crisscrossing Los Angeles. Pitchforks and torches in hand, the villagers are coming for the incumbents! What a sweet blissful dream.

But I awoke to a Jack Weiss for city attorney commercial on the Weather Channel and found a "Yes on Measure B" door hanger on my knob. As I drove to work, I chug-a-lugged an entire bottle of Maalox.

I keep hoping this election will be different. Maybe on March 3 we will grab our pitchforks and torches and march on the castle on Spring Street and destroy the monster we created through our own apathy.

The professionals are predicting a historic indifference on March 3. I've heard voter turnout predictions as low as 11 percent - the mayor's favorite number. The low turnout is by design. They don't want you to vote. They've done everything they can to discourage you from voting. "They" are the incumbents, the special interest groups, the public employee unions, the developers, the consultants and various parasites who feed off the body politic.

"They" are the wonderful folks who gave you bait-and-switch ballot initiatives like Measure R to extend the terms of City Council members, the phony phone tax "cut" that actually increased your phone taxes, and this year's whopper, Measure B, the so-called Solar Power/Green Jobs bill.

L.A.'s corrupted system only requires a light dusting of democracy to make everything nice and legal-like - a glaze of legitimacy on a process conducted in backrooms for the few at the expense of the many.

Ask an incumbent why our primary elections are held in March (with a May runoff) and they'll tell you it's for our own good. Local issues are so important we have to make sure they aren't lost in the blizzard of national and state issues we vote on in November. If that's the case, you'd think the incumbents would at least give us the courtesy of a debate? The mayor can't spare an hour of his time to defend his record?

It's an honor to hold office. The burden is on all incumbents to make the case why they should be entrusted with our safety, our children's education, our money. Why shouldn't the citizens of Los Angeles get straight answers to a few straight questions?

Mr. Mayor, do you plan on being mayor three years from now? With a ballooning deficit, a muddled public school system, eternally clogged traffic and gang-bangers by the thousands, aren't we entitled to know if you have any intention of actually doing the job you're running for? These are hardly the only questions that need answering, but they're a good place to start.

My burrito dream is probably just that, but it's not like that other dream I have where Angelina dumps Brad and the kids for that blond Moe Howard haircut dude who writes for the Daily News on Wednesdays.

My election dream can actually happen. The machine has been too smart by half. They've finally driven voter participation so low each ballot has been supersized. On March 3, it will be the taxpayers versus the unions, the homeowners versus developers, democracy versus the big fix.

Grab your pitchforks, light your torches. This way to the ballot box!