... the same thing as last week -- the election, now just one and a half weeks away (unless you early voted, and then it's all over but for the counting).
Last week, I covered the big state races (as a reminder, I wholeheartedly endorse Andrew GILLUM to be the next governor of the 3rd biggest state in our nation ... and I begrudgingly endorse Bill NELSON to retain his seat as one of our two Senators). This week I promised to review the proposed amendments to the state constitution ... but boy oh boy are they a bit of a mess.
In addition to amendments proposed by the legislature and by the people, this is also the time that a commission that meets every 20 years to review our state constitution has presented their initiatives. Further complicating matters, they are allowed to "bundle" amendments, which mean some are composed of three items -- often not related -- and the public has to vote all in (or none in). Then there is one amendment that, due to a lawsuit, got removed -- but so late in the process, that the others won't be renumbered. Plus there's the potential confusion over whether YES means NO or NO means YES or YES means YES or NO means NO, as amendments are often more confusingly written than this paragraph is. And on top of all of that, the ballot doesn't even include the actual amendments, just an approved summary -- because, you know, Florida people's reading comp scores are generally low.
In the links below, I'll highlight two different very very thorough deep-dives into everything being presented. And as for "endorsements", it is my hope that the following collect the 60% they need to become official: 4 (restoring voting rights), 12 (restricting lobbying) and 13 (banning betting on greyhound racing). The others are either bad policy or do not rise to the level of needing to be in the constitution vs being addressed by the legislature, in my humble and learned opinion.
Coming next week: the hyper-local initiatives only appearing on our SoFlo ballot.
A DEEP DIVE (IN VIDEO FORMAT):
https://www.local10.com/news/elections/understanding-florida-constitutional-amendment-questions-on-november-ballot-2018
A DEEP DIVE (IN PDF FORMAT):
https://www.jamesmadison.org/2018-florida-constitutional-amendment-guide-2/
WHAT'S WITH ALL THAT BUNDLING:
https://www.wmfe.org/why-voters-will-be-facing-so-many-bundled-amendments-explained/92787
