question about the proposed amendments in VA

[Pepsei]

I show up to vote in Richmond, Virginia today. it's rather easy as both Republicans are running almost unopposed. ( I can not see anyone beating John Warner).

At anyrate, can anyone explain the following to me in plain common folk English?

Proposed Constitutional Amendments

1. shall the constitution of va be amended to permit the supreme court to consider, as part of its original jurisdiction, claims of actual innocence presented by convicted felons in the cases and manner provided by the general assembly?

2. shall the con. of va be amended to allow localities by ordinance, rather than the general assembly by law, to exempt property from taxation that is used for charitable and certain other purposes, subject to the restrictions and conditions provided by general law?

 

[Linflas]

heh I was surprised by those myself when I went in to vote. All they were paying attention to in the media up here was the proposed 1/2 cent sales tax increase. I took the first one to mean that the appeal process could be bypassed and go directly to the Virginia Supreme Court but that was just my guess. The second one sounds like a small easing of the "Dillon law" since local jurisdictions in Virginia cannot exempt properties like that from taxation without the General Assembly taking action.

 

[Pepsei]

That sounds hella boring...

Why couldn't we get stuff like marijuana legalization for medicinal purposes(yeah right, but that would probably raise the voters turn out),
gay marriages is also being done in Nevada eh?

 

[tcsenter]

Because I'm not familiar with VA's proposals and who's supporting/opposing them, its very difficult to judge by the ballot language alone. In fact, one should NEVER just accept that a ballot's language is 'objective' and 'accurate'.

In many states, there is often a political battle to decide what language the "official" ballot will use to describe the proposal. The 'committee' who gets to decide this often 'summarizes' the proposal according to their own personal or political take on it.

Which is why a concealed weapons permit proposal in Missouri 'mysteriously' wound up on the ballot worded as though it were a new tax proposal and not a concealed weapons proposal (i.e. the proposal's opponents managed to convince a judge to allow their wording of the proposal so they could fundamentally deceive voters as to what the proposal was about).