[StBernard] Constitutional amendments challenge voters

[Westley Annis]

Constitutional amendments challenge voters
'This is not a voter-friendly ballot,' PAR president says of election.
September 26, 2006
By Mike Hasten
mhasten at gannett.com

BATON ROUGE "" Constitutional amendments are always a tough call, says
government observer Jim Brandt, but if voters aren't informed beforehand
about the group on the ballot this weekend, they won't know what they're
voting on.

Brandt, the president of the Public Affairs Research Council, says
Louisiana, by far, leads the nation in the number of proposed constitutional
amendments in one year. The 13 on the Sept. 30 ballot and 8 more on Nov. 7
are a national record but Louisiana also holds the title for second place ""
20 proposed amendments in one election cycle, in 1998.

 
The next closest number of amendments in any state is seven.

"This is not a voter-friendly ballot," he told the Press Club of Baton Rouge
on Monday. "It's one of the toughest voters have faced since the 1974
constitutional convention," when a whole new constitution was adopted. "Once
again, the ballot language is no help."

One of the most publicized amendments, No. 3, seeks to consolidate levee
boards and establish a new form of overseeing levee repairs in southeast
Louisiana. "But nothing in the description (on the ballot) talks about levee
boards or consolidation," Brand said.

Sen. Walter Boasso, R-Chalmette, is touring the state promoting that
amendment and the America's Wetlands campaign is promoting the first three
as important to the state's fight against coastal erosion.

Louisiana law sets a three-minute time limit on how long a voter can stay
behind the curtain selecting candidates and issues. Brandt says if people
aren't aware of what's in the amendment language, there's no way they can
read it all in three minutes.

PAR has assembled a guide to the amendments that presents pros and cons of
each and what voting for or against an amendment would mean. It's available
at libraries or online at www.la-par.org.

Brandt said he has a two-step process for determining whether a
constitutional amendment is worthwhile.

"Is it a good idea? Does it belong in the constitution?" he asks. On many
things, even if the first answer is yes, the second is no.

"A lot of amendments, while they may have merit, you can question whether
they belong in the constitution," he said. Many of the things in Louisiana's
Constitution are done by statute in other states.

"There seems to be a great deal of distrust" in Louisiana, he said. "People
don't trust the Legislature and want their particular sacred cow protected
in the constitution. The Legislature doesn't trust itself because they
prefer constitutional amendments" to keep future legislators from changing
things.

Because of that attitude, the 1974 constitution that rewrote the mammoth
1921 constitution into 35,000 words has been amended 127 times and now has
twice as many words. The 1921 constitution started out with 50,000 words but
by 1974 had 250,000 words, which Brandt said was the longest constitution in
the world.

The U.S. Constitution has been amended only 17 times "" not counting the
Bill of Rights "" in two centuries.

"We are off the charts with the number of constitutions we have had "" 11,"
he said. All states combined have had 145. "We love our constitutions in
Louisiana, and we love amending them."

Another problem with putting everything into the constitution, he said, is
that if the Legislature needs to change anything, another amendment is
needed. "It becomes a vicious cycle because the more you amend the
constitution, the more amendments it requires."

Two amendments on this weekend's ballot "" 6 and 9 "" have drafting errors,
and if approved, will require additional amendments to repair them.

Brandt said he believes it would be "a waste of time" to call a
constitutional convention at this time because the Legislature and the
public have the mindset that everything needs to be protected. He said he
would like to see an independent commission consisting of about 15 people to
examine the constitution and propose a workable plan for paring it down.