Vote NO on Amendment 1
In terms of the Nov. 5 General Election ballot, the Florida State Legislature has been busy.
Four of the six constitutional amendments to be decided by voters were placed there by those we send to Tallahassee. Their ballot initiatives represent a diverse range of proposed changes to our state’s bedrock governing document.
Amendment 1 proposes to make local school board elections partisan races; Amendment 2 purports to establish a right to hunt and fish in Florida; Amendment 5 would provide for annual adjustments for certain Homestead Exemptions, taking the rate of inflation into account annually; and Amendment 6 would repeal the state’s public campaign financing requirement.
Amendments 3 and 4 are citizen initiatives, placed on the ballot via petition.
Amendment 3 is “Adult Personal Use of Marijuana,” which would allow adults 21 years or older to possess, purchase, or use marijuana products.
Amendment 4 is “Amendment to Limit Government Interference with Abortion,” which would provide that “No law shall prohibit, penalize, delay, or restrict abortion before viability or when necessary to protect the patient’s health, as determined by the patient’s healthcare provider. This amendment does not change the Legislature’s constitutional authority to require notification to a parent or guardian before a minor has an abortion.”
To pass, constitutional amendments in Florida — whether placed on the ballot by the state legislature or via a citizen initiative like Amendments 3 and 4 — require that at least 60% of voters vote “YES” on the initiative.
Amendment 1, Partisan Election of Members of District School Boards, which would have candidates declare and run by party, is one to which we recommend a resounding NO.
Not because we think “partisan politics” is a bad thing — while the Founders were divided on whether a two-party system would be good for the then-fledging new republic or would lead the new United States of American down a path of divisiveness, the two-party system is imbedded in our history.
Not because we are naive enough to think that politics have not permeated our public school system, something voters statewide tried to avoid by engraving nonpartisan school board races into the state constitution in 1998 with a 64% majority.
But because we are idealistic enough to think that the most local of races — races where the issues are unique to community and a hometown constituency and not issues of national, state or even regional scope — should be decided by and open to all voters, no matter their party of choice.
We are, though, realists first.
The Florida Legislature’s decision to place Amendment 1 on the ballot was to gain state control of local decision-making for the party currently in power, which, here in Lee would effectively disenfranchise a majority of voters.
Among Lee County’s 490,639 registered voters there are 234,272 who have registered as Republicans and 110,976 who have registered as Democrats.
So why would it be wrong to formalize what has become the de facto election process here in Lee — that partisan races such as those for the Lee County Commission and all of the Constitutional offices from Lee County Sheriff to Tax Collector, Clerk of the Court and more are pretty much decided in the primary because all it takes is a no-party “ghost” candidate to close those races to all but those of the dominant party?
It is wrong because as partisan as politics may be, we are not all declared Republicans or Democrats.
There is a third collective group of registered voters — the second most, in fact. Many of them are younger with a good number in their family-raising years.
In Lee County alone there are 145,391 voters who have registered with no party, or a third party, affiliation.
Add this “Other” group to the Democrats and you have a majority — 256,367 voters, to be exact, a majority who a YES vote on Amendment 1 might not be able to vote for their candidate of choice in a deciding school board primary.
Statewide, there are 13,845,913 active registered voters — 5,455,480 Republicans; 4,400,561 Democrats; 404,890 minor party and 3,584,982 with no party affiliation.
This means a YES vote could effectively disenfranchise up to 3,989,872 non- major party aligned voters — no matter the majority party in their county — if, as here in Lee, partisan primaries can and usually do determine who wins the seat.
We are not OK with that, especially not in terms of school board elections, nor, for that matter, municipal elections.
We cannot pull politics out of school board races entirely — and shouldn’t — but we can and should make sure that our politics are local and our local officials have a true and diversely decided mandate.
Vote NO on Amendment 1.