We’ll be voting on six statewide ballot initiatives this year. (Would have been eight, but two were deleted.) You can read them on this Miami-Dade sample ballot. The most controversial will probably be No. 3, requiring future constitutional amendments be approved by 60% of the voters rather than a simple majority.
I don’t understand #1.
I will probably vote yes on 3. After all, it takes a 2/3 majority to amend the US Constitution, why not have the same standards for our state Constitution?
I will probably vote no on 4.
I don’t know how I will vote on 6, probably yes on 7.
Definitely yes on 8.
Nitpick: Actually, it takes a 2/3 majority of both houses of Congress, plus a simple majority vote (or whatever that state’s rules require) in 3/4 of the state legislatures. There’s no provision in the U.S. Constitution for approval of an amendment by referendum; but, of course, any state legislature would have the option of turning the question over to the voters instead of deciding it themselves.
Well, I can’t vote, but color me surprised: I had no idea that property taken under eminent domain could then be resold.
#8 seems like it should have been taken care of fifty years ago.
I knew it was something like that. In any event, amending the US Constitutution is a laborious process, as well it should be. I’m still embarrassed that we have the pregnant pig amendment in our state Constitution.
It’s always been that way. I mean, once the government takes a piece of property, it owns it; what it owns, it can sell. The new thing is, this Supreme Court case from last year establishes that, as far as the Fifth Amendment is concerned, a government can condemn property for the purpose of reselling it to a private developer. A lot of people don’t like that and are trying to enact state-level legislation or constitutional amendments to change it; hence, Prop 8.
Election’s Tuesday! Gitcher last lix in!
Why aren’t we seeing threads like this about other states? Don’t they have any measures on the ballot this year?
None in NYC this time. Ours tend to be sort of dry anyway, like about the appointment of assistant surrogate adjutant judges and stuff.
Hunkering down to be a pollworker again…
I voted on 14 initiatives this year, including one to make initiatives easier and allow them on more subjects.
I started a thread in GD on the judicial term limits one, but it dropped like a rock.
I agree with Florida’s #3; we should have that here. Perhaps I’ll start collecting signatures. 
At least there aren’t any pig farmer amendments on the ballot this go around.
Here in Leon County we also have a local one to vote on. They are trying to add one more 1/2 cent to the sales tax, to pay for health care for the uninsured in the county. If it passes, our sales tax here will be at the state maximum – 8 %.
Here’s a good website to help with the constitutional amendments. I remember using this one to get info about the proposed amendments on the last go around. They not only try to explain them in plainer English, but they list who the typical proponents/opponents are (if known), as well as where the amendment originated (i.e. legistlature, petition, special interests, etc).
Why did #5 get shot down?
Perhaps it infringed upon legistlators’ constitutional right to gerrymander? 