A response to Norm Silber’s proposal to eliminate the Constitutional Office of Register of Probate. Your ballot on Tuesday has two items related to the NH Constitution. Norm Silber wrote about the first one: Register of Probate. The second one is:
We want to thank Dan McGuire for this Op-Ed. Direct yours to Editor@GraniteGrok.com.
“Shall there be a convention to amend or revise the constitution?”
If approved by a majority of voters, this would create a convention of delegates to propose constitutional amendments. The delegates would be elected at the next election in two years and would have the same number and districts as State Reps do, so most of them would probably also be State Reps. Any amendments they propose would have to pass the delegates by 60% and the people by 2/3rds, similar to current amendments.
The main reason to vote for it is if there is a constitutional amendment that people would like, but the legislature (especially the Senate) continuously blocks it. This is a way around it. Maybe term limits? Overall, I don’t think it’s a big deal whether it passes or not.
This question is automatically on the ballot every ten years or sooner if the legislature wants it.
Interestingly, this was the only way the constitution was amended until 1964, when the legislature gained the power to propose amendments. The last three votes on this question (’92, ’02, and ’12) have been negative, although the first two were very close.
