{"id":1333,"date":"2014-10-11T03:00:24","date_gmt":"2014-10-11T07:00:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/rhodeisland.concon.info\/?p=1333"},"modified":"2014-11-01T20:44:04","modified_gmt":"2014-11-02T00:44:04","slug":"expose-of-the-master-puppeteers-behind-r-i-s-2014-voter-information-handbook","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rhodeisland.concon.info\/?p=1333","title":{"rendered":"The Master Puppeteers Behind R.I.\u2019s 2014 Voter Information Handbook"},"content":{"rendered":"

In early October, Rhode Island\u2019s Secretary of State mailed at taxpayer expense to hundreds of thousands of registered voters a printed copy of the\u00a02014 Voter Information Handbook<\/em>.\u00a0 The Handbook<\/em> includes what is supposed to be an impartial explanation of all the questions on the ballot so that voters can make an informed choice about the merits of voting for or against each question.<\/p>\n

The Handbook<\/em>\u2019s existence reflects the people of Rhode Island\u2019s faith in the impartiality and due diligence of the Office of Secretary of State.\u00a0 But the drafting history of the explanation for Question #3 (the question whether to convene a state constitutional convention) calls that trust into question.<\/p>\n

Based on a carefully researched and documented history of the drafting of Question #3 (see\u00a0the History of the 2014 Voter Information Handbook<\/a>), we draw six conclusions:<\/p>\n

First, Secretary of State A. Ralph Mollis acted as a puppet for the General Assembly\u2019s leadership in drafting Question #3 in the\u00a02014 Voter Information Handbook<\/em>.\u00a0 Legislative staff not only drafted key sections of the question but were given an effective veto on any provisions they didn\u2019t like.<\/p>\n

Second, the Bi-partisan Preparatory Commission, a constitutionally mandated commission to inform the voters about the issues a constitutional convention could address, was used as political cover for the puppetry.\u00a0 The \u201cpreparatory commission\u201d is mentioned five times in the explanation for Question #3\u00a0and has been repeatedly cited as the source of information that should more properly be credited to the General Assembly\u2019s leadership.\u00a0 The General Assembly\u2019s leadership appointed all twelve Commission members, including eight from the General Assembly itself.<\/p>\n

Third, consistent with the puppetry, Secretary of State Mollis overturned the opinion of his legal counsel that the Bi-partisan Preparatory Commission\u2019s cost estimate\u00a0should not be included in the\u00a02014 Voter Information Handbook<\/em>.\u00a0 Former Rhode Island Supreme Court Justice Robert Flanders had written to the Secretary of State questioning the legality of including cost information for non-bond referendums.\u00a0 Others had questioned the undocumented and controversial way the cost was estimated.\u00a0 This prompted the Secretary of State\u2019s executive and bond counsels to advise him to delete this information from Question #3, but the Secretary of State chose to accede to the desires of legislative staff to keep it in.<\/p>\n

Fourth, in the\u00a02014 Voter Information Handbook<\/em>, more space (21 words) is devoted to describing the physical location where a copy of the\u00a0Commission Report could be found (Room 208 at the State House) than to the issues that a constitutional convention could address (zero words).\u00a0 Those issues, presented at the Preparatory Commission public hearings by multiple speakers, included legislative redistricting, ethics, transparency, campaign finance, and term limits as well as enhancements to the powers of the executive branch, including the line-item veto.<\/p>\n

Fifth, the General Assembly and Bi-partisan Preparatory Commission leadership have been opposed to convening a state constitutional convention.\u00a0 As the senior legislator who co-chaired and moderated the Commission said on a recent TV show: \u201cI\u2019ll be very upfront with you, I do not believe we should have a constitutional convention at this time.\u00a0 I think it would be a mistake for the state\u2026.\u00a0 The constitution can be amended in other ways that doesn\u2019t put us in jeopardy\u2026.\u00a0 And, of course, there is the cost.\u2026\u00a0 I\u2019d rather see the 2.5 million dollars put towards the developmentally disabled in the state.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sixth, the Bi-partisan Preparatory Commission Report and the\u00a02014 Voter Information Handbook<\/em>\u00a0failed in their respective explanations of the periodic constitutional convention referendum (Question #3) to explain its democratic function.\u00a0 The Framers of that provision in the Constitution included it to provide a checks & balances mechanism to initiate democratic reforms when the General Assembly was itself the problem.\u00a0 This omission of essential information about the purpose of the referendum mimics the framing of the issue by both the General Assembly leadership and the coalition favoring a no vote on the constitutional convention question.<\/p>\n

The Question #3 wording in the 2014 Voter Information Handbook<\/em> should be read not as an impartial explanation but as subtly crafted PR on behalf of the General Assembly\u2019s leadership\u2014paid for by Rhode Island taxpayers\u2014to emphasize the potential costs rather than the benefits of convening a state constitutional convention.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In early October, Rhode Island\u2019s Secretary of State mailed at taxpayer expense to hundreds of thousands of registered voters a printed copy of the\u00a02014 Voter Information Handbook.\u00a0 The Handbook includes what is supposed to be an impartial explanation of all the questions on the ballot so that voters can make an informed choice about the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1333","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rhodeisland.concon.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1333","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rhodeisland.concon.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rhodeisland.concon.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rhodeisland.concon.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rhodeisland.concon.info\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1333"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/rhodeisland.concon.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1333\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1557,"href":"https:\/\/rhodeisland.concon.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1333\/revisions\/1557"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rhodeisland.concon.info\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1333"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rhodeisland.concon.info\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1333"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rhodeisland.concon.info\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1333"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}