Dakota Beacon

Measuring the Measures

By Lynn Bergman

North Dakota Constitutional Measurer 1:

This would have changed the threshold for passage from 50+% to 60+%.

It failed 56.48% (NO) to 43.52% (YES). It was about 6.5% short of passage under the current constitution.

North Dakota Constitutional Measure 2:

This would have required that taxpayers provide free lunches for all K-12 students, regardless of their parents’ income.

It failed 50.61% (NO) to 49.39% (YES). It was about 0.6% short of passage under the current constitution.

Commentary:

There is no “free lunch”

The Legislature’s solution to this problem (during previous sessions) involved providing taxpayer-funded lunches to children whose parents live well above the poverty level, intending that no child would go without nor would any child or parent be publicly or privately embarrassed.

Measure 2 was an ill-conceived change to the constitution that would have provided free lunches to children whose parents are well-situated financially, at significant cost to taxpayers, for no logical reason.

The “close call” regarding Measure 2 is perhaps the best argument one could make for the passage of Measure 1. Had Measure one passed, Measure two would not likely re-appear on the ballot in the future with a higher threshold of 60+% in order to pass.

Measure 2 will appear again in the future

Because Measure 1 failed, you can be almost certain that Measure 2 will re-appear in the future, even though it will remain to be ill-conceived.

The United States of America were designed to be a “Democratic Republic” form of government, not a “Democracy”

We enjoy a “democratic republic”, not a democracy. The founders realized that a pure “democracy” allows the party in the majority (50+%) to impose it’s will on the minority, no matter what the issue. Theoretically, in the extreme, a pure democracy could pass a law that transferred all wealth from the minority party constituents to the majority party constituents.

Thanks, but No thanks, England

The framers, realizing that slavery had been “planted” through the actions of an English Monarchy and its parliamentary “rubber stamp”, drew up the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and the Bill of Rights under the assumption that “all men are created equal”, but left it to future generations to resolve how that lofty goal could be best achieved. After all, they were at war with England and found winning that war to be of paramount concern at the time.

The Initiative and Referendum

In a democratic republic such as ours, we elect legislative members to represent our interests. If we disagree with a law the legislative members pass and forward to the Governor for signature, we can “refer” the law. Or we can “initiate” laws. Both procedures require the gathering of signatures and legislative review of content to insure clarity for the voters.

Changing a constitution is Serious Business

Precisely because Special Interests, too often from out of state, wish to change our constitution, and too often in order to enrich their pockets, Measure 1 was a well-conceived measure that would insure more than a substantial of voters (60%) agree.

Other Measure Results

California’s Proposition 40 would have imposed a one-time wealth tax of 5% on the “wealth” (good luck coming up with the number) of those with over $1 Billion in total wealth. It is failing to pass with about 55.6% No and 44.4% Yes.

Alaska’s measure to repeal “open primaries” and “ranked choice” voting unfortunately failed with “no” votes at 51.8% and “yes” votes at 48.1%. Alaska voters also confirmed that only US citizens residing in Alaska may vote by a margin of 69.6% (Yes) to 30.4% (No). Alaska is one of six states to vote on such a measure; the others were Arizona, Arkansas, Kansas, South Dakota, and West Virginia.

Love = Work + Courage