Constitutional Conventions and Term Limits Repeal Fail, Annual Sessions Pass

Fourteeen states have automatic constitutional convention referenda in which voters periodically decide whether or not a constitutional convention should be called.  Three states had automatic constitutional convention referenda on the ballot yesterday, and all three went down to defeat by wide margins.  "Yes" votes were only 41 percent in Connecticut, 41 percent in Connecticut and 32 percent in Illinois. (A rose from The Thicket to Pat O'Grady.)

These results suggest that voters are not anxious to undertake wholesale rewrites of their constitutions and institutional structures.  However, in another institutional measure voters in Arkansas approved annual sessions.  This reduces the number of states that have biennial, as opposed to annual, sessions to five.

The proposed repeal of term limits in South Dakota failed.