August 2016 Newsletter

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4 Ballot Questions November 8th

On March 1, 1983 the current Constitution of the State of Georgia was certified and delivered to the Secretary of State, as required by Article XI, Section 1, Paragraph V, of the proposed new constitution, which took effect July 1, 1983. Members of a special commission,1 responsible for performing certification and delivery of the new constitution as required by that Paragraph, did so and presented their work to the Secretary of State, State Capitol, Fulton County, Georgia.

From 1983 through 2012, a total of 96 amendments to the up-dated constitution were proposed, 77 were ratified by voters, and 19 were rejected. All ratified amendments were incorporated into the currently available Constitution of the State of Georgia that was updated in 2013.

The Amendment Process. Proposed constitutional amendments are introduced as House or Senate resolutions that require two-thirds votes for passage. However, a constitutional change will not be made until a majority of voters pass the proposed amendment in a referendum.

In many cases, companion bills are passed to provide regulations to implement changes for the ratified amendments. For defeated proposed amendments, regulatory bills become irrelevant.

The Current Situation. The 2016 session of the General Assembly passed four2 resolutions proposing amendments to the Georgia constitution. Questions for their ratification will be on the November 8th General Election Ballot. Although the legislative language of the four proposed amendments will appear on the November 8th ballot, voters at the polls won’t have enough time to analyze such extensive information while standing in line.

Also, it is difficult to know the results of constitutional changes without understanding the intent of each resolution. Therefore, those four pieces of legislation are outlined herein for your convenience. The questions will appear on the ballot in the same order as presented here.

  • To read the ballot questions and the rest of this newsletter in PDF format, please click here.