Why not write city ballot questions in plain English?
Democracy can be complicated, but does it have to be incomprehensible? Take this question Memphis city voters shall find on the Nov. 6 ballot:
“Shall the Charter of the City of Memphis, Tennessee be amended to repeal Instant Runoff Voting and to restore the election procedure existing prior to the 2008 Amendment for all City offices, and expressly retaining the 1991 federal ruling for persons elected to the Memphis City Council single districts?” Yes or no? Or What? One sentence, 49 words, 96 syllables — never a good ratio for comprehension.
What was “the election procedure existing prior to the 2008 Amendment for all City offices”? Do we need to know?
We don’t. The phrase seems intentionally confounding. The 2011 and 2015 city election procedures were no different than in 2007.
What was the 1991 federal ruling for persons elected to the Memphis City Council single districts? Does it matter?
It doesn’t, at least not to voters standing patiently in the booth, trying conscientiously and desperately to fulfill their civic duties.
That’s assuming they didn’t leave the booth in frustration after trying to wade through the swamp of the 71-word, 108syllable sentence before it.
“Shall the Charter of the City of Memphis, Tennessee be amended to provide no person shall be eligible to hold or to be elected to the office of Mayor or Memphis City Council if any such person has served at any time more than three (3) consecutive four-year terms, except that service by persons elected or appointed to fill an unexpired four-year term shall not be counted as full fouryear term?” Yes or no? Or please make it stop? Each question uses a truckload of words, but neither load includes any letters that let voters know we’ve already voted on these matters.
In 2008, nearly 155,000 voters (71 percent) approved “instant runoff voting as an option in school board and city council district races.”
And nearly 180,000 voters (78 percent) agreed to limit the mayor and city council members to TWO consecutive four-year terms.
The term limits took effect in the 2011 election. This year’s ballot question is asking voters to add a third four-term term.
Instant runoffs are set to begin in the city’s next election in 2019 (only in seven single-member council districts). This year’s ballot question is asking voters to end instant runoffs before they even begin. Sensing a pattern here? There’s a third and blessedly shorter question on the ballot.
“Shall the Charter of the City of Memphis, Tennessee be amended to provide that in any municipal election held as required by law, the candidate receiving the largest number of votes shall be declared the winner, thereby eliminating runoff elections?”
Forty words (72 syllables) that don’t leave voters quite as lost in the desert as the other questions. Still, it’s unnecessarily muddled.
Who writes these questions? I asked Linda Phillips, county administrator of elections. She responded so succinctly, it obviously wasn’t her: “The body that sends them to us; we print exactly what they provide,” she wrote.
In this case, the body was the Memphis City Council, whose current members approved all three ballot questions. And why not?
Instant runoffs, and runoff elections in general, tend to make it easier for challengers to unseat incumbents in multi-candidate district races. Incumbents generally become stronger the longer they are in office.
As Mark Twain once wrote, “It takes a heap of sense to write good nonsense.”
No state law restricts ballot questions to be one sentence, or requires them to be inordinately legalistic or written in some language other than plain English.
A middle school English class could easily clarify and shorten all three ballot questions.
Do you want to amend the city charter to:
1. Repeal Instant Runoff Voting set to begin in the 2019 city election. Yes or no.
2. Increase term limits for mayor and city council members from 8 to 12 years. Yes or no.
3. Eliminate runoffs in all city elections. Yes or no.
It’s not complicated, unless you read the actual ballot questions. Evil will never leave the house of one who pays back evil for good. Proverbs 17:13
TODAY’S BIBLE VERSE