Amendment 11: Updating obsolete provisions

SNN: Amendment 11: Updating obsolete provisions

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SARASOTA- Amendment 11 has three constitutional amendments packed into one vote, and if it’s passed it will update a lot of language currently in the constitution. New College of Florida Political Science Professor Frank Alcock says calls this amendment a housekeeping amendment. The first part would remove a constitutional provision prohibiting alien’s ineligible for citizenship from owning property.
“Does anybody every use this or enforce this, no,” Alcock said. “How long has it been there, I think 19th century. Why was it put there, I think anti-chinese, Japanese sentiments, other states did it, other state abolished that language, apparently we haven’t. They’d like to take that language out of the constitution.”
The second half gets rid of another obsolete provision.
“We have some lingering language relating to high-speed rail systems,” Alcock said. “Which we had passed in 2002, reversed ourselves in 2006. It’s obsolete right now, but it’s still there they’d like to take that out of it.”
The one section of this amendment that will lead to real changes in the constitution is the third part, which deals with something known as the “savings clause.”
“If you were sentenced under laws that the legislature of Florida in general later believes to be very draconian,” Alcock said. “If we make changes to sentencing or laws you cannot go back and provide somebody relief even if the legislature wanted to because of this language in the constitution.”
Passing the amendment, would change that.
“Cleanup the savings clause so that it’s not a hindrance to retroactively providing some consideration for folks that were sentenced,” Alcock said. “So the ACLU is in favor of that one, so that one has quietly popped up. The rest of that amendment largely just housekeeping language that’s largely obsolete.”
You can find a sample ballot ahead of election day by visiting these websites:
Manatee County: https://www.votemanatee.com/Election-Information/Sample-Ballots
Sarasota County: https://www.sarasotavotes.com/precinctfinder.aspx
Charlotte County: https://www.charlottevotes.com/Portals/Charlotte/State%20Senate%20District%2026%20Sample%20Ballot.pdf