Amendment 46 and Voting in General

I just got my voter booklet in the mail last week, and Amendment 46 was one of the ballot measures that I skimmed. At the time it didn’t really sound that bad, after reading Melissa Hart’s brief I realize I was one of the many people mislead by the language of this amendment. The fact that “preferential treatment” isn’t defined really is the fallout of this amendment, because of this Amendment 46 won’t be what presumably most people think will be, or accomplish what these very people want it to. On that same note it’s quite a shame that Initiative 82 didn’t get enough signatures to make it on the ballot. I think that movement would have been critical into making this amendment better aligned with the perceived.

In response to what someone said earlier, there are a lot of crazy ballot initiatives this year, and my step-mother and I discussed that when we briefly discussed the contents of the “blue book”. I mentioned that there must be a lot of amendments, and a good measure of them could be undoing what a previous amendments set out to do in Colorado. While I haven’t done any research to confirm or refute that statement, it is something interesting to consider. My step-mother had been a voter in Montana for a lot of years, and she said she never had to vote on this many amendments before. It’s kind of scary that so many people are willing to sign so many amendments onto the ballot. Of course this is from a fairly naïve perspective, I’m just starting to really understand how all of this works since this will be the first year I’ll be voting.

The potential to ban student groups based on race and gender, and similarly, programs in existence to encourage underrepresented groups in certain fields to pursue those career paths and provide better access to those industries is appalling. Another student touched on student groups earlier saying that they offer much needed support. And might I add that they also provide a way to educate others outside that particular group in the safe learning environment of a college or university with programs that those groups usually bring to campus and co-sponsor.