Rules should be simple and easy to follow. Nothing about our state constitution is simple.
Alabama has the largest constitution in the world. It is 40 times longer than the nation's and approximately twice as long as the constitution of India. It has more than 800 amendments, and the legislators keep cranking them out.
Something doesn't sit right with me about having a legally binding government document that is more than 300,000 words long. It's like if you filled your computer's desktop with a document file and saved a whole new file every time you changed it and never deleted anything. You look like you have no idea how to use a computer.
Having a constitution this long makes it look like we have no idea how to make laws accessible to everyone and easy to understand.
The kicker is that there isn't a big conversation going on about this. There is a group campaigning to rewrite the constitution, which would save everyone time, money and heartache, but I've never known how bad a problem this was until this year. I'd rather vote once to amend the whole thing rather than pick through my ballots for the next 40 years to see if we can reach 1,000 amendments.
Our method of voting on changes is shady too, because the legislature can put things through without a popular vote. You're only going to see 11 proposed amendments Nov. 6, but there are actually seven more. It's counterproductive to progress.
This voting procedure is unfair. Why, if I am a resident of Limestone County, do I need to vote on matters in Mobile County? I don't live there, and if it doesn't affect the rest of the state, why should I be involved? I'm not going to spend time making an informed decision on something that happens eight hours away and that can be detrimental to people in Mobile County.
Most of the amendments have been declared outdated by one court or another. How hard should it be to cut out the clutter? I'd like to be able to read about Alabama laws on my own without having to take a law class.
Convoluted is probably the best word to describe this monstrosity. We still have laws on the books that date back to Reconstruction. Segregation in schools is still on paper. Even doing something as simple as taking out language like that spurs lawmakers to conclude it could raise taxes, or cause education rights groups to say it could be the end of public education in Alabama.
The obvious answer is not to keep amending amendments on laws about playing dominoes in public on a Sunday. It is to rewrite this whole thing. Otherwise, I think our preamble will read: "Good Lord, this thing is wordy."
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