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[\/et_pb_fullwidth_header][et_pb_fullwidth_post_title global_parent=”145″ _builder_version=”3.17.5″ categories=”off” comments=”off” featured_image=”off” disabled_on=”on|on|on” disabled=”on” \/][\/et_pb_section][et_pb_section bb_built=”1″ prev_background_color=”#000000″][et_pb_row][et_pb_column type=”1_4″][\/et_pb_column][et_pb_column type=”1_2″][et_pb_text]<\/p>\n
On Nov. 6, 2018, Hawaii residents will vote on whether to call a state constitutional convention. The question they will see on the ballot is: \u201cShall there be a convention to propose a revision of or amendments to the Constitution?\u201d This ballot text is the only form of conventionrelated media that every voter will see immediately before voting \u2014 when many voters are most impressionable.<\/p>\n
Unfortunately, this seemingly innocuous question is highly biased because it doesn\u2019t specify whether it refers to the federal or Hawaii Constitution. Close to 100 percent of Americans know they have a national constitution, but less than half know they have a state Constitution. Thus, many Hawaii voters could go to the polls presuming that what is being referred to is the United States Constitution. And since Americans are taught to revere their federal constitution like the Bible, the question could just as well have been worded: \u201cShall the Bible, written by god, be rewritten?\u201d<\/p>\n
In short, the ballot language is strongly biased against a \u201cyes\u201d vote.<\/p>\n
The language is derived from New York\u2019s 1846 Constitution. At that time, the language wasn\u2019t biased because prior to the Civil War voters considered state government, including state constitutions, more important than the federal government. State constitutional conventions were also frequent and relatively familiar occurrences, which undermined the notion that they should be treated as sacred convenings by godlike wise men. New York, for example, held state constitutional conventions in 1777, 1788, 1801, 1821, and 1846. Hawaii has held conventions in 1950, 1968, and 1978.<\/p>\n
In 2008, the last time this question was on the ballot, Hawaii\u2019s Office of Elections provided voter information guides that included information on the upcoming convention referendum but failed to clarify that the question concerned a state rather than federal convention.<\/p>\n
It also failed to explain in a timely and clear way three other attributes:<\/p>\n
All this is essential information if voters are to understand what they are voting on. Alas, offices of election controlled by state legislatures have a poor track record of providing such information. In<\/p>\n
New York, a former counsel for the governor sued the Board of Elections for the obscure place on the ballot it placed the convention question. In Rhode Island, a former state Supreme Court justice wrote to the Board of Elections that the information it provided to voters was an \u201cattempt to put a negative thumb on the voters\u2019 scale\u201d and was \u201cunauthorized and illegal.\u201d<\/p>\n
We should not depend on Hawaii\u2019s Legislature-appointed Elections Commission for unbiased information concerning the upcoming referendum. Instead, we must rely on the press.<\/p>\n
As usual, the press should provide pro and con information concerning a referendum. But it should also highlight how this referendum systematically differs from other ballot questions in both democratic function and process.<\/p>\n
Doing so would help protect the people\u2019s most fundamental political right: their right to reform their constitution, which encompasses their right to reforms, such as legislative term limits, that the public overwhelmingly supports but the Legislature opposes and will never place on the ballot.<\/p>\n