NOTE: This is a revised, updated episode, as played on radio stations.
The original episode can be found here
On January 22, two separate issues appeared on the ballot in Nashville, Tennessee. But voters may not have known that. Seems some folks didn’t want them to know.
You see, Amendment 1, called “English-Only,” stirred up lots of controversy. That initiative read, in part: “all official government communications and publications shall be in English.”
A group called Nashville for All of Us raised $300,000 and, along with the mayor and the governor, campaigned against it. In the course of their campaign, every advertisement urged a vote against both Amendment 1 AND Amendment 2.
Yet, strangely, there was absolutely no mention in their ads or on their website as to what Amendment 2 was about.
Well, in plain English, Amendment 2 had nothing to do with English-Only. Amendment 2 was called Hear the People, and sought to protect the people’s initiative rights. Unfortunately, it went down to defeat along with English-Only.
That’s too bad, because Amendment 2 would have made it easier to put issues on general election ballots rather than on costly special elections, like this one. Amendment 2 would have lowered the number of signatures needed to place an issue on the ballot. And it would have prevented the Metro Council from amending or repealing measures passed by voters . . . at least for four years.
No wonder some folks didn’t want the voters to know about Amendment 2.
This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.