Early voting is underway and there are four constitutional amendments on the ballot for the December 7 election. That might not be enough to spur a heavy turnout, but amendments to the constitution are still important.
It’s hard to know exactly why lawmakers decided to place only one amendment on the November ballot and save four for December when the turnout is all but guaranteed to be vastly different. Two-thirds of the state’s voters went to the polls in the presidential election a few weeks ago including more than 1.8 million who voted on that single constitutional amendment.
If you are looking for an idea of how many people are likely to vote on December 7, you could go back to 2020, the last General Election that followed a presidential election. In that one only 15% of the electorate showed up, or barely 500,000 people total. That’s a pretty poor turnout.
That’s unfortunate because there are some significant changes to the constitution for voters to decide this year. All have a back story and need a little bit of an explanation to understand, but two in particular are extremely complicated and for most voters will require at least some degree of homework.
CABL has tried to help with our analysis of each of the amendments. For the quick version, here are our recommendations:
Constitutional Amendments for the December 7 Ballot
Amendment #1 Changes to Judiciary Commission NO
Amendment #2 More Time for Lawmakers to Review Spending Bills NO
Amendment #3 Lengthen Legislative Session to Pass Spending Bills YES
Amendment # 4 Tax Sales of Property for Delinquent Taxes YES
These recommendations are meant to be helpful, but the truth is voters really need to look at the amendments more closely and make an informed decision before they vote. You can do that by checking out the full CABL analysis of the amendments or seeking out some of the other helpful resources that are out there.
Each of these amendments seeks to make a significant change to Louisiana’s constitution. It is unfortunate that a couple are hugely complex and deal with things most voters would never have an experience with. Be that as it may, that is how our system works and it is up to us as citizens to do our part, learn what these amendments do, and cast our votes on Election Day.