About Those Ballot Questions

The excitement of this year’s election campaign promises to drive record numbers of voters to the polls. We expect most of those voters will have given a lot of thought to their choice for President and congressman, and they may even have taken a keen interest in Newtown’s competitive state legislative races this year. Now, with just a week and a half before Election Day, we urge you to consider a part of the 2008 ballot that may have escaped your attention.

Two constitutional questions will be posed to voters on November 4: the first asks whether there should be a Constitutional Convention to revise or amend Connecticut’s Constitution; the second asks whether 17-year-olds should be allowed to vote in primaries if they turn 18 before the general election. Our answer to the first question is inspired by the evolution of the second.

Connecticut’s Constitution is the bedrock of state law, and its pedigree traces back to The Fundamental Orders of 1638-39, claimed by some historians to be the first written constitution in history. It is not to be trifled with, nor is it to be neglected. The Constitution itself requires voters to be asked every 20 years whether a special convention should review and possibly recommend changes to it. The last time Connecticut voters answered that question in the affirmative was 44 years ago in 1964.

There is a concerted campaign this year to convene a Constitutional Convention by various special interest groups who have a particular amendment in mind. They would like to change the Constitution to allow legislative initiatives to be placed directly on the ballot by petition. Such popular, or citizens’, initiatives are allowed in various forms in 34 other states, and they permit voters to bypass their elected legislative representatives to enact state law or amend the Constitution by plebiscite. (One of the many initiatives on California’s chaotic ballot this year would amend that state’s Constitution to specify the size of chicken cages.) Opponents of gay marriage would like to amend the Connecticut Constitution by direct initiative to ban gay marriage thereby eliminating the basis for the State Supreme Court’s recent ruling allowing such marriages.

If we examine the path that led the second question to the ballot this year, we see how desirable and necessary changes to the state’s Constitution can be made with both expedience and due deliberation while avoiding the knee-jerk-there-oughta-be-a-law-issue-of-the-minute approach to direct initiative legislation and constitutional review. The proposal to change the Constitution to allow 17-year-olds near the age of majority participate in the primaries for elections in which they will be eligible to vote was introduced last spring. (A Newtown High School student, Mark Fernandez, helped its sponsor, State Rep James Spallone, promote the change among state legislators.) The Legislature researched the issue, conducted hearings, and ultimately found the proposal made such good sense that it passed both the House and Senate by the two-thirds margins required to get it on the ballot and, the electorate willing, into the constitution.

Seeing what the direct initiative process has become in other states and how efficiently ideas with merit can negotiate Connecticut’s legislative path for constitutional revision, we recommend voters reject the first question on this year’s ballot and approve the second.