Hawaii Senate Should Reject SB 1195, SD1
As proven through our election campaigns, repeat something as loudly and as often as you can, and enough people will begin to believe it to make a difference.
On Tuesday, March 8, 2011, the Hawaii State Senate will have on its agenda to pass on third reading, , SD1 which will make it much easier to pass amendments to the Hawaii State Constitution.
If it passes, it will pass over to the House for action.
As written in the committee report to the Senate President, the purpose of SB 1195 is to prohibit the counting of blank votes and overvotes in determining whether a proposed constitutional amendment has been ratified. This is based on a complete misunderstanding of the vote requirement for the passage of constitutional amendments.
This misunderstanding has been deliberately impressed upon our voters as the testimonies supporting this bill show. The only reason given for supporting the bill is the stupidity of counting blank votes and void votes as 鈥渘o鈥 votes. If those votes were really counted as 鈥渘o鈥 votes, the League of Women Voters would be among the first groups to challenge the system even in court, but blank votes are not counted as 鈥渘o鈥 votes.
Before 1980, the vote requirement for the ratification of constitutional amendments was that the affirmative or 鈥測es鈥 votes be more than the 鈥渘o鈥 votes, and that the 鈥測es鈥 votes be at least 35 percent of all of the ballots cast in that election. So, let’s say that a thousand people went to the polls, and the vote counts were: 365 yesses, 325 nos, and 310 blanks. If blank votes were really counted as 鈥渘o鈥 votes, 325 nos and 310 blanks would equal 635 鈥渘o鈥 votes, and the proposed amendment would have been defeated. However, the 310 blank votes are not counted as 鈥渘o鈥 voters, and 365 鈥測es鈥 votes are at least 35 percent of 1,000, so the amendment would have passed.
Blank votes are not 鈥渘o鈥 votes and have never been counted as 鈥渘o鈥 votes.
In 1980, the Legislature, believing that constitutional amendments should be confirmed by more voters than was required then, proposed an increase in the vote requirement to 50 percent from the previous 35 percent.
In the 1980 General Election, the proposed amendment was wisely approved by 56 percent of the voters.
And only because the vote rquirement is exactly 50 percent, not 48 percent or 53 percent, but exactly 50 percent, can we actually as a calculation aid, count the 鈥渘o鈥漵 and the blanks and add them together, and if the total exceeds 50 percent, know that the affirmative vote does not make the 50 percent requirement and vice versa.
So, banning the counting of blank votes as 鈥渘o鈥 votes does not change anything. It’s the vote requirement that is important. The amending of our State Constitution, should take much thought and care. State constitutions are meant to provide the structure of our government, the principles we believe in, the rights we hold dear as individuals, and restrictions on government so that certain decisions are left to the people who hold the ratification process as a control over government, especially in a state like Hawaii that does not allow its citizens the power of Initiative and Referendum.
Outside of a Constitutional Convention, it is the legislature that proposes amendments. They will only put on the ballot, amendments they approve. We, as voters, have to give such proposals serious thought. Remember that SB 1195 is meant to make the passage of constitutional amendments easier.
About the author: Jean Y. Aoki is a retired school teacher who has been with the League of Women Voters since 1978. She has been actively involved in League projects since, chairing numerous studies and voter information projects varying from Judicial Independence to Constitutional Conventions. She has served as League’s Legislative Liaison since some time in the 1990’s till now.
