Amendments Split Victories
Nov 6th 2008ScottPolitics & Wyoming & blogging & conservatism & elections & worthwhile reads
Wyoming’s ballot featured two proposed State Constitutional Amendments. While both proposals found aproval with Wyoming voters, only one will be passed into law.
Amendment A proposed modernizing and simplifying the oath of office taken by elected and appointed officials. Voters overwhelmingly approved the proposal with nearly 192,000 favoring the passage, compared to nearly 43,000 opposing.
While the margin of approval was much narrower for Amendment B, which would have changed the signature requirement for initiatives and referendums to be counted by State Senate District rather than counties, there was not enough voter approval on the matter to gain passage. For an amendment to be passed, Wyoming law states that it must receive approval from a majority of the ballots cast. That would have required 128,667 Yes votes. The yeas fell short by 8,355 votes. Also, ballots left blank on proposed measures are required to be counted as if the ballot had been marked No. After factoring in the under votes, the Nays take the lead, 135,399 opposed to 120,312 for.
A number of Wyoming’s elected leaders supported the proposed amendment on the basis that because the representation of Wyoming’s citizens was by legislative districts and not counties, the requirement for signatures to be counted by Senate District rather than county would make the process more Constitutional. Those that opposed the measure contended that the process would have become more difficult, since special maps are required for noting where legislative districts change and since votes are tabulated by county and not legislative districts.
Initially the AP reported that Amendment B had passed, but after the state released the number of ballots cast, their call was reversed. In this blogger’s opinion, failure on Amendment B comes as a victory for the people of Wyoming.
No Comments »
