The County Line - Summer 2000

Lessons Learned Important for November Vote

I'm not sure how you measure one's expertise on a certain subject. But if constant exposure to an activity can make one an expert, then this Association should by now be world-class in the field of constitutional amendment campaigns.

We have promoted four different statewide amendments to abolish supernumeraries. All have failed, but in the process we learned a great deal about amendments and the voters' reactions to amendments. As a result, we began attaching the supernumerary problem with local amendments, and it is working.

Then in 1998 we promoted -- successfully -- an amendment to severely restrict the Legislature's ability to pass unfunded mandates onto counties and cities. During that campaign, we utilized some of the lessons learned during previous amendments.

And we were successful. And, as we march closer to the November vote on Amendments #1 and #3, some of the hard knocks we have suffered during the last decade working on constitutional amendments can serve to guide our activities.

Elsewhere in this publication you can read details of the amendments and exactly how they will affect county revenue, the proposed road and bridge bond issue and the state of Alabama. However, there are a few political lessons that are vital to our success in November.

First of all -- and perhaps most important -- we must realize that very few people actually take the time to read the constitutional amendments that appear on the ballot. Or, stated another way, most of the people DO NOT read the proposed constitutional amend-ents before casting their votes.

Some people will blindly vote "no" on all amend-ents. These folks do not make up a large segment of the voting population, but they exist. And there is also a much smaller group that will blindly vote "yes" on all amendments. We cannot change either of those two groups. But we must use their existence to guide our work with everyone else.

In the absence of reading the amendment, the people who give thought to their vote must therefore rely on other sources of information. Some rely on the opinions of newspapers. Others will look to elected officials, community leaders, influence groups or their family and friends. And still others will look at marked ballots or ask the person in front or behind them in the voting line.

If our effort is to succeed, we must be effective communicators with the news media, we must utilize our roles as community and civic leaders and we must spread the word about these two amendments. Remember, most voters are not going to read the amendments, so they are going to listen to the opinion of someone. It had better be our opinion that they hear!

Secondly, we know that there is no way to regulate advertising that is produced on the amendments. Or, to put it bluntly, people can tell lies about amendments and there is not much you can do about it.

We experienced this problem a few years ago when a blatantly false radio campaign was waged against our supernumerary amendment on the Monday before the Tuesday election. The advertisement was full of emotionally-charged information that compared our amendment to the demise of the social security system.

You can accept the fact that falsehoods -- mother really didn't like me to call people liars -- will be told about this amendment between now and November. In fact, some falsehoods have already been told.

People will try to use emotionally-charged language again to convince people to vote against this important amendment. We simply have to work harder. We have to tell the truth and we have to make people realize that it is pretty easy to separate truth from fiction if you will look around and talk to people you trust.

In the end, the people will vote in line with the persons they trust. And, I believe, the people who are telling the truth will usually be the most trustworthy.

Third, people will vote in favor of an amendment if they understand how the amendment affects their lives. People will, after all, vote for something if they know what they are getting in return.

During our efforts on the supernumerary amendments, we could never overcome the problem that most voters did not understand the supernumerary system and how it affected their local tax dollars. Now that we have moved to local constitutional amendments on supernumeraries, it is much easier to describe the impact on local government and -- therefore -- the voters are willing to endorse the amendments on the local level.

As we look toward the passage of Amendments #1 and #3, it is important that the voters in every county know exactly how the amendments will affect their lives. It is important that they see how much bridge and road money will be received in their community. It is important that they know the improvements to the state docks will affect all our lives. And they must realize that the agricultural improvements that will be funded will benefit our agricultural community in a way that is vital to its continued growth.

If the people believe the amendment is nothing more than a fight between a bunch of politicians in Montgomery, the amendment will fail. If they realize that the amendment touches their community -- that children they know will no longer have to detour old bridges in a school bus, that an improved docks system can produce jobs throughout Alabama and that our agricultural industry is hungry for this bond issue -- then they are much more likely to vote in favor of the amendment.

Such communication rests squarely on our shoulders. We must collect the details on how this bond issue will impact our communities and then spread that message every day between now and November 7, 2000.

And, finally, we have learned that losing amendment elections is not much fun.

We have been on the losing end of four statewide referendums on abolishing supernumeraries. The day after the election was not much fun for anyone involved in those fights. The morning after the passage of our unfunded mandates amendment was -- however -- a great day. And that is the feeling that we want to repeat this year.

With the approach of November 7, I am focusing my attention on the positive impact these amendments can have on our state. We have a chance, for once, to do something positive and to actually take a long-range look at our problems. But the fate of these amendments rest in our hands.

I am excited about those possibilities. And I am excited about the chances of ratifying Amendments #1 and #3. We must, however, remember the lessons we have learned in the past or we'll find ourselves looking for excuses when all the votes are counted.