Winners in Alabama: Racism and Seafood

Once again, I am embarrassed of my home state. In addition to the Presidential election yesterday, Alabama voters were offered EIGHT more opportunities to amend what is already the longest and most-amended constitution in the world. (Alabama’s constitution has 315,000 words and over 700 amendments.)

The proposed constitutional amendments on the ballot covered such minor topics as

“promotion of economic and industrial development in Baldwin County (PA 1, which passed with 56% of the vote)”

and

“the repeal of amendment No. 496, which provides for the judge of probate to receive the same salary as the district judge in Crenshaw County. (PA 6, which failed with 55% voting no)”

How many of the 1+ million voters understood what “repeal” means? And is it not absurd that the state constitution will now be amended to promote economic and industrial development in a single county? All of Alabama needs economic and industrial development! Why do we deal with these issues in the context of the state constitution?!

There were other examples of legislative idiocy, but as the efforts toward wholesale contitutional reform in Alabama have not yet prevailed, there was one shining example of the efforts to draw Alabama, kicking and screaming, into the present reality: proposed amendment two endeavored…

to repeal portions of Section 256 and Amendment 111 relating to separation of schools by race and repeal portions of Amendment 111 concerning constitutional construction against the right to education, and to repeal Section 259, Amendment 90, and Amendment 109 relating to the poll tax.

This proposed amendment is still up in the air, split nearly 50/50 across our backwards state. Early numbers (with 99% of precincts reporting) have 685,508 voters (49.88%) in favor, 688,927 voters (50.12%) against. In other words, Alabama voters are evenly split on whether to remove from its state constitution unenforceable language that implements segregation and poll taxes.

Oh, but proposed amendment four, which provides for the promotion of shrimp and seafood, passed with 63% of the vote.