What's On YOUR Ballot?

Sometimes reading the newspaper or watching television or surfing the Internet you come away thinking the only matter being decided in our upcoming election is the presidency.  But of course, that is not true.  We will all be electing (or re-electing) representatives to congress, and in many states, US senators, governors, state representatives and all manner of local officials, from mayors to dog catchers.  People in many states and localities will also be weighing on various judgeships.  (I have a friend who is running for City Judge in a small city in upstate New York.  Some folks there don't even know what the City Judge does!)

In some states, including Florida, we will be doing more than electing governmental officials.  We will also be voting on various questions of law, including, in some instances, constitutional amendments.  There are eleven such questions on the Florida ballot.  And it worries me.  Many people don't even bother to read them, much less vote on them.  And often they are worded in such a way as to be confusing unless you've done your civic homework and researched them in advance.

Here in Florida two of those constitutional amendments have a lot to do with issues about which most people have a very strong opinion--yet they will fail to register their opinion in the most powerful way possible.  They will fail to vote.  Item number 6 on the Florida ballot has to do with public financing of abortions.  In essence, it would amend the constitution in such a fashion as to prohibit any use of public funds for abortions.  Period.  That would mean all public employees, from bureaucrats to highway workers, would be barred from having abortions paid for by their employee-provided health care plans.  (There are exceptions allowed for in the case of rape, incest or endangerment of the mother's life.)

A second amendment, item number 8 on the Florida ballot, would prohibit denying governmental monies being paid directly to institutions due to their religious beliefs.  This amendment is being called by it's supporters the religious freedom amendment, but it does raise serious questions about church-state relations.  Yet many, many folks will fail to weigh in on it!

So what's on your ballot?  Have you taken time to find out?  If not, I urge you to become an educated voter, and then to use your right to vote to register your opinion not just on those at the top of the ballot, but on all the candidates and all the issues.