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This was written by Mrs Don O

I think the best thing we can do this Nov -— owing to math of the “dual majority” or “supermajority” mechanism of amending the Constitution -— is to skip the governor race and boost Proposition 1.

This is something I wrote up for my parish:

YesOn1: Moral, Political, Tactical Thoughts

Did you know that Amendment One could (theoretically) get 100% “YES” votes , 0% “NO” votes, and still not pass?

Amending the TN Constitution requires, not just a simple majority, but a “dual majority,” That means that it’s not enough for the proposed amendment to get more “Yes” than “No” votes. To pass, an amendment must get a majority based on the total ballots cast for the governor of the state. Anyone who votes for the governor but simply skips voting on the Amendment, is casting an automatic “NO” vote against the Amendment.

Consider a theoretical situation: say the total number of ballots cast in the governor’s race (for all candidates combined) , is 2,000,000. And say the total number of ballots cast on the Amendment (“YES” and “NO” votes combined) is just 200,000. Even if the vote for the amendment were unanimous — if all 200,000 ballots cast were “Yes” votes -— the amendment would fail.

Why? Because the number of votes needed to pass would not be 100,001,-— a hundred thousand and one; It would be 1,000,001 — a million and one -— a majority of the total ballots cast in the governor’s race.

So: more vote are cast for governor, the higher the bar is set: the higher the number an amendment is required to get in order to pass. And the less total votes there are for governor, the less the total votes an amendment is required to get.

That leads to a purely tactical question: wouldn’t it help the Amendment if a lot of people voted YES on the Amendment, and didn’t vote for governor at all? In other words, if Amendment supporters cast their vote on Amendment, but skipped the governor’s line on the ballot altogether?

From an ethical point of view: is this moral? Strictly speaking it’s not a moral question at all, but a tactical one: but yes, it’s morally allowable, because it ‘ s not morally obligatory to vote for governor. (That’s exactly the kind of purely political-tactical question the Church, for instance, cannot rule on, one way or the other.)

Is it legal? Again, this is a political, not a moral question, but the answer is yes: of course it’s legal. Voting on the governor line, one way or the other, is not morally obligatory.

So should you skip voting for governor, in order to lower the bar and make it easier to pass the YesOn1 Pro-Life Amendment? It’s strictly up to your judgment as a voter and citizen.

The best advice is to study exactly how a “dual majority” vote works, evaluate other factors, policies and platforms as much as you can or must, and then cast your ballot by your own best judgment to get the best results for the Sanctity of Life in Tennessee.