Rhode Island
Opinion: RI voter handbook is biased against ballot Question 1
Union-lead coalition urges rejection of constitutional convention
Union-lead coalition urges rejection of constitutional convention
By now you should have received the Rhode Island Secretary of State’s 2024 Voter Information Handbook, as it was mailed to all registered voters before early voting started on Oct. 16. The Handbook includes an “explanation and purpose” of Question 1: Shall there be a convention to amend or revise the Rhode Island Constitution?
This ballot summary, paid for by taxpayers and written by a government official, is supposed to be objective. But it is biased against calling a convention because instead of merely explaining the question it takes the improper additional step of answering it by implying that a legislature can do anything a convention can at less cost and risk. It mimics three biases that convention opponents routinely make in their anti-convention advertising:
More: Taking sides: Where do RI leaders stand on constitutional convention question?
First, it doesn’t explain the unique democratic function of the periodic constitutional convention referendum in Rhode Island’s Constitution. Twenty-four American state constitutions provide the ballot initiative to allow the people to bypass the legislature. As an alternative legislature bypass mechanism adopted by 14 states, Rhode Island’s framers adopted the periodic constitutional convention referendum.
Accordingly, the ballot summary should have stated that the Rhode Island Constitution’s periodic convention referendum is the only way the people of Rhode Island can break the legislature’s monopoly gatekeeping power over constitutional amendment. The ballot summary also misleadingly implies that a convention’s − but not the legislature’s − constitutional amendment proposal power is unlimited, with the implication that such unlimited power is bad. But if a convention’s agenda could be limited by the legislature, it would be unable to fulfill its democratic function as a legislature bypass institution.
More: Hopes, fears and money go into campaigns for and against constitutional convention
Second, it lacks a simple explanation of the three public votes that constitute the convention process: 1) whether to call a convention, 2) if called, to elect convention delegates to propose constitutional amendments, and 3) whether to approve or disapprove each of the convention’s proposed amendments. Its focus on the first two votes supports its implicit narrative that a convention is riskier and less democratic than a legislature.
Third, it only attempts to quantify a convention’s potential costs, thus not only excluding its potential benefits but also violating Rhode Island “law.” It is standard practice in public policy analysis to provide a cost-benefit analysis, so only providing costs is clearly biased. In a submission to the secretary of state, I suggested one way to quantify benefits: estimate the break-even point for the percentage of government waste a convention would have to reduce to match its costs. Given the Rhode Island State Government’s $14-billion annual budget and $140-billion budget between convention referendums, a convention that reduced state government waste by only .1% (such as by mandating an independent inspector general, which the legislature has refused to do), would have a payback of 29,200% using the SOS’s highest convention cost estimate, $4.8 million. And this, mind you, when the public thinks that state government wastes 42% of every dollar spent.
I don’t endorse estimating either benefits or costs in a ballot summary because doing so requires heroic assumptions inappropriate for such a summary. But given the SOS’s insistence on providing a cost estimate, he should have balanced it with a benefit estimate. Cutting out the biased cost estimate would also have been consistent with the 2014 legal advice provided to the SOS by a former Rhode Island Supreme Court justice and the SOS’s own legal counsel. They argued that only Rhode Island bond measures should have cost information in their explanation. But no practical mechanism exists to enforce this law, and a law without an effective remedy isn’t really a law.
Surveys indicate that voter information handbooks provide the most used and by implication influential voter information on so-called low-information ballot measures such as the convention referendum. It’s sad, then, to see the SOS so recklessly abuse this power, even if he is not the first Rhode Island SOS to do so.
J.H. Snider is the editor of The Rhode Island State Constitutional Convention Clearinghouse and author of the video “Question 1 – Constitutional Convention.”
Rhode Island
BRACKET CHALLENGE: Which RI high school has the best team logo? Vote in Elite 8 now!
Welcome to the Elite 8!
If your team has made it this far in the Providence Journal high school logo challenge, you’ve certainly earned a victory lap.
The Sweet 16 was not kind to the top seeds. No. 1 Bay View and No. 2 Lincoln did advance, but that was it for the heavyweights from the opening rounds of voting.
No. 4 Blackstone Valley Prep was ousted by No. 20 Portsmouth. No. 24 Cranston West topped No. 8 Barrington with 53% of the voting. Cumberland downed No. 5 Toll Gate with nearly 60% of the votes. And 19th ranked Ponaganset toppled No. 3 St. George’s with a 54.6% share of the voting.
That leaves us with eight teams remaining in the logo challenge. Voting for this round opened on Oct. 28 and closes on Nov. 1 at 11:59 p.m.
Vote now!
Sweet 16 results
No. 1 Bay View vs. No. 24 Cranston West
No. 12 Cumberland vs. No. 20 Portsmouth
No. 2 Lincoln vs. No. 10 East Providence
No. 19 Ponaganset vs. No. 27 Pilgrim
Rhode Island
Car catches fire on Route 146 in Providence | ABC6
PROVIDENCE, R.I. (WLNE) — Rhode Island State Police said a car caught fire on Route 146 North in Providence Sunday morning.
Police and firefighters responded to the area just before the merge with Interstate 95 around 7:30.
Police said the driver pulled into the breakdown lane because he “smelled smoke” and the car caught fire.
The fire was put out without incident and the car was towed away.
Rhode Island
Rhode Island FC trounces Miami in regular-season finale. What’s next?
Drummers and dancers greet tailgaters at Rhode Island FC’s first game
A marching ban parades through the parking lot at Bryant University ahead of Rhode Island FC’s first game
SMITHFIELD — Saturday night was a coronation for Rhode Island FC.
The club already secured a playoff spot entering the regular-season finale against Miami FC and RIFC used all 90 minutes to celebrate its postseason berth. JJ Williams tallied three first-half goals and Rhode Island trounced Miami, 8–1,at Beirne Stadium.
Rhode Island finishes its first regular season at 12-7-15 and earned the fifth seed in the Eastern Conference playoffs. The club travels to fourth-seeded Indy Eleven for its inaugural playoff game on Sunday, Nov. 3. The start time is TBD.
“It’s a nice way to cap the season off at home and give the fans something to celebrate,” RIFC coach, Khano Smith said. “I don’t think [Miami], at the end, provided much resistance. We shouldn’t get ahead of ourselves and think we are that good. We are definitely going to play a much better team next week.”
More: Here’s a look inside the Tidewater Landing soccer stadium ahead of next year’s season
More: Rhode Island FC releases season-ticket pricing for next year at Tidewater Landing
Noah Fuson started the first-half blitz with a goal in the 10th minute and Williams doubled the advantage just six minutes later. Fuson corralled a Miami turnover at midfield and fed Williams for the easy score. Marc Ybarra made it 3-0 with a right-footed finish in the center of the box, while Williams added his second goal off a penalty spot.
“We haven’t done anything, we’ve qualified for the playoffs, but we’re going on the road,” Smith said. “We’re in no position to be taking anyone lightly or getting ahead of ourselves.”
Williams finished off the first-half hat trick, the first three-goal game in club history, with a deft move around the Miami keeper for an open-net score in the 45th minute. Miami was the worst team in the USL this season finishing with just three wins and a minus-63 goal differential. Miami’s first-half score was the first goal the club managed since Aug. 14 against Memphis 901 FC.
Rhode Island rode its second-half momentum and added goals from Frank Nodarse, Albert Dikwa and Jojea Kwizera. The club bested its most goals in game this season by three.
Rhode Island finished with 51 points on the year and a plus-15 goal differential. They tied Indy Eleven in points but lost the head-to-head matchup as the teams drew, 3-3, in July and Indy topped Rhode Island, 1-0, in August.
“A team that we haven’t beat, but certainly a team we think we can beat,” Smith said of Indy. “It’s going to be difficult, but I think we’re in really good form and we are healthy.”
jrousseau@providencejournal.com
On X: @ByJacobRousseau
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