You’ve got to hand it to Senator M’am: The woman defies parody.  Barbara Boxer decided to get a head start on election season yesterday, casting an early ballot in Riverside.  When reporters inquired about how she’d voted on a raft of statewide propositions, Boxer declined to answer:

U.S. Sen. Barbara Boxer voted early today in Riverside, and likely cast her vote for a host of statewide propositions on the November ballot.

But after dropping off her ballot, Boxer did not say how she weighed in on five of those measures — propositions 21, 22, 24, 25 and 26. She already has taken a public stance on propositions 19, 20, 23 and 27.

“Well I have taken a position on the major propositions, but we’ll be working on all of those and will be putting some information out on that,” Boxer said at a news conference.

What, pray tell, were the supposedly non-major initiatives on which Boxer had just voted, yet somehow still needed to “work on” before adopting a public position?  Of the five propositions Babs won’t discuss, four of them deal with her favorite three-letter word, which starts with T and ends in X:

Prop. 21 would charge car owners an extra $18 a year to help pay for state parks and wildlife programs. Prop. 22 deals with funds for transportation and local government. Among its provisions, Prop. 22 would prohibit the state from borrowing from funds used for transportation, local government and redevelopment agencies.

Prop. 24 would repeal recent changes to state tax law that allows some businesses to pay less in taxes. Prop. 25 would eliminate the two-thirds requirement in the Legislature to approve state budgets.

Prop. 26 also deals with taxes and fees. If approved, the proposition would treat many state and local fees as taxes that require a two-thirds vote by lawmakers to take effect.

Boxer’s refusal to share her stance on five of the nine California ballot propositions is especially rich considering the opprobrium she unleashed on Carly Fiorina after the Republican initially refrained from stating her position on a single issue during their first (and only) televised debate.  Feigning incredulity that Fiorina hadn’t yet established a firm position on Prop 23, Boxer huffed, “If you can’t take a stand on Prop 23, I don’t know what you will take a stand on.”  Fully six weeks later, Fiorina has long since clarified her support for the initiative in question, and Boxer is evasively promising to “put out some information” on positions she’s already taken.

In fairness to Boxer, however, this is still America.  Even though she’s hypocritically withholding her public verdict on a handful of ballot propositions, the California Senator is under absolutely no obligation to tell anyone how she voted.  After all, access to a secret ballot is an integral element of free and fair elections, and a pillar of the American electoral system.  Surely this great champion of liberty is unflinching in her support for this eternal principle, yes?  Nope:

Senator Boxer is a strong supporter of the Employee Free Choice Act, which would allow workers, not employers, to choose the method of organizing a union.

Barbara Boxer for Senate: Fighting for a secret ballot for me, but not for thee.

As an homage to Allahpundit, I’ll leave you with an Exit Question: Did Boxer opt out of telling reporters how she’d voted because she realized her (assumed) support for higher taxes could damage her tenuous re-election prospects, or had she simply already forgotten how she’d voted just a few moments earlier?   Given everything we know about her, I’m thinking option B is a real possibility.

Hot Air guest blogger Guy Benson is the Political Editor of Townhall.com, and the host of the Guy Benson Show.