Comments on Amendments 1 to 4 to be decided on November 3, 2020

An AFOA member sent this to us, but did not or could not give us the source. The recommendations are different from previous commentaries we picked up from the Alabama Policy Institute, Alabama Farmers Federation and AL.com.

VOTE NO TO REWRITING ANY AMENDMENTS
Rewriting OUR CONSTITUTION One Amendment At A Time
Remember each time you vote for an amendment you are allowing the legislature to rewrite your Constitution for you. Wonder whose best interest they have at heart?

Amendment 1
A rewrite to grant the right to vote to only those U.S. Citizens who meet certain criteria and are Citizens of this State and the United States. We already have laws on the books which define the certain criteria and require voters to be Citizens of this State and the United States before they can vote. VOTE NO

Amendment 2
A rewrite to change the appointing process for the head of the Administrative Office of Court (the office which administrates our court system). IT INCREASES THE JUDICIAL INQUIRY COMMISSION FROM 9 RETIRED JUDGES TO 11 RETIRED JUDGES AND IT TAKES YOUR RIGHT AS A TAXPAYER TO REMOVE A JUDGE FROM OFFICE FOR UNLAWFUL BEHAVIOR AND PLACES IT SOLELY AND COMPLETELY IN THE HANDS OF THE JUDICIAL INQUIRY COMMISSION. Currently 5 resident taxpayers under Alabama Law through court action can remove a judge or any other public servant for unlawful conduct. (SEE ALABAMA CODE OF 1975 Section 36-11-6). VOTE NO

Amendment 3
Increases the time limit from one year to two years an appointed district or circuit judge can hold office before running for election. Currently an appointed judge can hold office for 1 year or until the term expires. This amendment will extend term limits for appointed judges and create unnecessary expense in order to hold elections offset to regular elections. VOTE NO

Amendment # 4 pertaining to the Alabama Constitution
Amendment 4 is being touted as a recompilation of the Alabama Constitution. What this means according to the Alabama Legislature is taking out racist language. The issue here is the Alabama Constitution received a recompilation around 2004 which purged all the language which was construed as racist. This creates an opportunity to rewrite rather than recompile. Having removed racist language in the prior 2004 recompilation – Could there be an unspoken motive on the part of the sponsors of this amendment?
VOTE NO