Colorado Capitol
Colorado voters, who were nearly alone among all their Midwest and Rocky Mountain West neighbors in voting for Hillary Clinton on Tuesday, also decided to keep slavery in their state constitution.
At least the option for that.
A proposal, Amendment T, that would have removed that status, was rejected by voters in the state that has, over recent years, turned far left in its election decisions, twice supporting Barack Obama before going for Clinton.
Public Radio reported the pertinent section in the state constitution provides, “There shall never be in this state either slavery or involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime, whereof the party shall have been duly convicted.”
Those who wanted to remove that language from the state’s founding document said, public radio reported, it’s a representation of a time in the U.S. “when not all people were seen as human beings or treated with dignity.”
They said it should be removed to reflect values of freedom and equality.
But those who opposed the change said the ripple effect of dropping the language could create uncertainty for prison work programs in the state.
Those, they explained, “provide structure and purpose for … offenders, while enabling skill building and helping to reduce recidivism.”
They said “such practices have a place in the correctional system.”
In the Durango Herald, amendment supporters blamed poor wording on the ballots for the failure.
“They said that it was very confusing,” Rep. Joe Salazar, D-Thornton, said. “When they said they voted ‘no’ on Amendment T, I explained to them what Amendment T was about … They were like, ‘That’s not how it read.’”
“At a campaign launch for the initiative in August, one observer joked that only the KKK would oppose such a seemingly obvious measure,” the Herald reported.
“I know that Colorado does not value slavery,” committee member Sister Sharon Bridgeforth told the Herald. “It has to be the language – people didn’t understand it.”
Promoters say they may take the issue, which was referred to the initiative process by the Legislature last session, to voters again.
Only the road will be even rockier if there is a next time.
Colorado voters, in addition to choosing Hillary Clinton on Tuesday, also approved a change in the constitution to make it harder to change the constitution. Now, among other things, an initiative would need the support of a super majority of 55 percent of the voters in order to pass.
from PropagandaGuard https://propagandaguard.wordpress.com/2016/11/10/pro-hillary-state-shocks-with-slavery-vote/
from WordPress https://toddmsiebert.wordpress.com/2016/11/10/pro-hillary-state-shocks-with-slavery-vote/
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