LETTER TO THE EDITOR / UNDERSTANDING THE BALLOT: Amendment 4 (YES), Amendment 6 (NO)
Roger C. Kostmayer
Completing the 2018 ballot for the November 6 election, with some 30 plus decisions, can be confusing. This is especially true for votes on proposed amendments to the state constitution. The brief descriptions are inadequate and often misleading – they sometimes seem to be about one thing but are really about another. Following are two important examples and recommendations.
AMENDMENT 4 ( YES) – Is about the right to vote. Florida currently has a lifetime voting ban for anyone convicted of a felony – even someone who paid their debt to society, rehabilitated their life, and are now productive members of their community. The current law adversely affects 1.6 million Floridians, 1 in 10 citizens, and amendment 4 returns the right to vote to those who have been disenfranchised (except for those convicted of murder or felonious sexual assault).
AMENDMENT 6 (MARSY’S LAW) (NO) – This amendment would delete constitutional protections for an accused and replace them with additional protections for corporations. This amendment is overly broad, poorly drafted and misleading for voters.
It’s my understanding that objective analysis of these amendments by public interest organizations, such as the League of Women Voters and the ACLU, all came to the same conclusions.
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As if the League of Women Voters and the ACLU were legitimate arbiters for such issues.
The bias of such organizations is obvious~!