Confusion: Yes or no
Nothing is simple at the Arkansas legislature. Rep. Kathy Webb has a bill, HB 1404, to simplify the ballot when multiple issues appear. Instead of being faced with Referred Act One, Initiated Act One and Constitutional Amendment One (and the confusing advertising that would attend them), the ballot would be numbered sequentially -- Issue One, Issue Two, Issue Three. Each would be fully and accurately titled, naturally.
Who could be against it? Who else but the Family Council. This opposition only lends further circumstantial evidence to the belief that Act One, their punitive adoption measure (which every pre-election poll indicated was headed for defeat, including polls by Republican pollsters) was helped by voter confusion.
The stupid thing about the Family Council's opposition, though, is that confusion can cut both ways. Are you for making things easier or harder for voters? Seems simple. But no.
Comments
My guess is Kathy Webb could sponsor legislation instituting Arkansas Family Council Day on which staff of the Council would receive public accolades, ice cream sundaes, and a free puppy and the haters would still be against it.
That said, they know voter confusion definitely worked in their favor in the last election and it tells you where their priorities lie when they would rather preserve a political advantage than support legislation in the public interest.
Posted by: Buddy Cole![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://www.arktimes.com/blogs/arkansasblog/nav-commenters.gif)
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February 18, 2009 11:09 AM
Conservatives seem bent on keeping us in the dark as to what is going on. That's why they went so hard against ACORN in the last election. Heaven forbid the poor and disadvantaged get a vote or be educated on the issues! Better to keep the unwashed masses ignorant and the women barefoot and pregnant.
Posted by: Arkansas Hillbilly![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://www.arktimes.com/blogs/arkansasblog/nav-commenters.gif)
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February 18, 2009 11:32 AM
Except for sex....whenever anyone purposely makes complicated that which is simple, expect a screwing coming on. The ABC is the master of such with their hopelessly confusing liquor laws. The Family Council knows exactly how stupid the average voter is and like Roman soldiers casting lots for Jesus's duds, the Family Council bets on the stupidity of the voter to get their crocks passed into laws.
Is this kind of trickery Biblical, I ask you? Though my letters are returned repeatedly, I'm still asking Steve Jobs & Bill Gates to come to Arkansas and modernize and streamline our state government. I'm sure the first thing they'd do is remove this 1874 language from our ballots.
Posted by: Deathbyinches![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://www.arktimes.com/blogs/arkansasblog/nav-commenters.gif)
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February 18, 2009 12:41 PM
I wish "voter confusion" were at the heart of the passage of Initiated Act One, but somehow I doubt it.
Arkansas' voters may not be the country's best-educated when it comes to these decisions, but we're right up there with the country's best-bigoted when it involves same-sex issues of any kind.
Not that facts are going to change anybody's mind: not in these parts.
But here's an article from yesterday's Chicago Tribune on this very topic.
Posted by: NormaBates![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://www.arktimes.com/blogs/arkansasblog/nav-commenters.gif)
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February 18, 2009 02:09 PM