Rally Against Constitutional Convention Ballot Item in Hartford This Sunday

In Connecticut, the state constitution requires a ballot item to appear every 20 years, asking voters the question, “Shall there be a convention to propose a revision of or amendments to the Constitution?”.

A couple of announcements have been made (see here and here) announcing a rally sponsored by organizations such as the Socialist Party and NARAL Pro-Choice Connecticut to be held Sunday, 28 September at the Capitol in Hartford, trying to gain support for a “no” vote on the ConCon question.

It seems that the main proponents for this year’s question is the Connecticut Constitution Convention Campaign, a group seeking to introduce ballot initiatives to Connecticut, presumably with an eye towards attempting anti-abortion, anti-same-gender-marriage, etc. measures.

Now, while I’m not a fan of unfettered ballot initiatives (there is a reason we are a republic, not a pure democracy), I can see some value in having such a capability available given the deficiencies occasionally seen in legislative bodies.  If the requirements for an initiative to be put on the ballot are sufficiently tough (to discourage silliness), I could go for it.

What do I mean by “tough”?  Well, here are some ideas:

• Require a very large number of signatures on a petition (say 5% of the number of votes cast in each congressional district, per CD), or perhaps require that the initiative be proposed by the town councils of 25 different towns in the state.
   
• Require a judicial review of a proposed initiative, prior to its appearance on the ballot.  Why waste taxpayer’s money with an initiative that would be found in conflict with either the state or federal Constitutions?
   
• Require that ballot initiatives appear on the ballot only at elections in which statewide races are being decided.  If a question is worth bringing to the voters, let’s have none of the nonsense of a special election, or hiding it during a primary.
   
• Require that the state legislature hold confirming votes within the first 10 legislative days following the initiative, and require that both houses provide at least 40% support.  If either house has a supermajority voting against the initiative, it fails to become law.  (And, presumably, if voters disagree with that decision, those concerns can be expressed next election.)

I’ve previously thought that liberal groups tended to prefer initiatives more than conservative groups.  Assuming my impression is correct, the apparent role reversal in Connecticut is interesting.