Alabama’s Constitution, one of the oldest in the country, may soon be rewritten.
An Alabama House of Representatives committee approved a referendum last Wednesday to vote for a new state constitutional convention.
The committee voted 9-4 in favor of the bill.
If the bill passes through the House and Senate, delegates would be voted on in 2010 at the same time as primary elections.
Sen. Ted Little (D-Auburn) was chief sponsor of the same bill in the state Senate.
“I can’t imagine the legislature denying the people an opportunity to at least have that proposition placed in front of them,” Little said.
Speaker Pro-Tem Demetrius Newton (D-Birmingham) introduced the bill in the House.
In an article printed in the Montgomery Advertiser, Sandra Bell, president of the Alabama Association of Judeo Christian Values, said the elected delegates would be heavily influenced by special interest groups.
“These are the people who are going to rewrite our constitution,” Bell said in the article. “They have no intention of letting the people rewrite it.”
Steven Brown, a professor of political science, said special interest groups will play a role in whether a new constitution is written.
“They’re either involved in the process of the convention, or they’re involved now in the Legislature,” Brown said. “If it is done right, there would be so many competing at the same time that none could prevail over the others.”
The delegates would be made up of two people, one man and one woman, elected from each of the 105 House districts.
As the bill stands now, the convention would be June 6, 2011 to write a new constitution. A popular vote to ratify it would take place in 2012.
“There are very good lines of protection to make sure the people have the last voice, and the rightful voice, on deciding whether or not to have a convention,” Little said.
