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Other Opinions If you did not know there was an election on June 5 - or didn't care - then you were not alone. Statewide voter turnout was light for the special election, which included no candidates and only two propositions for voters to accept or kill. Polling places probably had more poll workers than voters present at most times during the 12-hour election. In Morgan, Lawrence and Limestone counties, only about 10 percent of eligible people voted. Both propositions passed easily. One was of genuine statewide importance: allowing the state to sell $400 million in bonds for industrial incentives, including promises already made to a German steel mill near Mobile that will employ 2,700. The other proposition dealt with trust funds for the future health insurance costs of retired state workers and school employees. In a sane world, neither issue should require a statewide election. We elect people who are capable of making such decisions. These propositions were amendments to our state's 1901 constitution, the longest in the nation. It has about 800 amendments, many of them dealing with minor issues. People simply do not understand many of these amendments and don't want to be bothered with them - especially if they live in North Alabama and the issue is whether to fund a volunteer fire department in, say, Baldwin County. On many occasions, good amendments have failed simply because not enough people took time to vote for them or because opponents were able to stir up enough uninformed opposition. Requiring statewide elections on issues so small that most people don't even vote is a relatively minor sin of the 1901 constitution. It also includes racist language, an inflexible and unfair tax system, and too much control in Montgomery over issues that cities and counties should decide. It needs replacing.
-The Decatur Daily
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