Wording on ballots misleading to voters

When is a term limit, not really a term limit? Well, when it’s an initiative that’s added to the ballot for next month special election Oct.19, and here’s what I mean:

Using a form of word “ju-jitsu,” the Caddo Parish Commission, by a vote of 9-3, approved a ballot measure, back in July, that sets forth the following before the voters, in next month’s election:

Shall Paragraph A, Section 3-01 of Article III of the Caddo Parish Home Rule Charter be amended to read as follows? Section 3-01. Composition, qualifications and election. A. The legislative power of the parish government shall be vested in a Commission consisting of members who shall be called commissioners and who shall be elected for four-year terms from districts enumerated in Section 9-01, one from and by the qualified electors in each district. The commissioners shall be limited to five consecutive elected terms.

So, if you are in support of term limits, and most people are, with recent polling indicating that 75 percent of us do, then this ballot initiative seems to be right up your alley, so to speak, right?

Well, not at all, actually, considering that the current term limit for Commissioners is only three consecutive elected terms, and a vote “for” this ballot initiative will actually increase the number of consecutive terms to five. I mean, why didn’t they just say that to begin with?

The wording of the ballot is misleading, at best, and insulting to the intelligence of the voters of Caddo Parish, at worst. And many reports in the local news media only add to the confusion here, inasmuch as they refer to this as a “term limit” ballot measure, which is an oxymoron once you know the facts.

This sort of “gobbledegook” wording of ballots is not new, but it threatens to redefine our democratic society because if voters don’t understand the wording for each ballot measure, that means that they are only participating in some parts of the election, and not in all parts. It’s no wonder that voter turnout is so abysmal these days, and is continuing to worsen.

Did you know that the National Center for Education Statistics found that the average reading level in the United States is at the eighth-grade level, but that the average statewide ballot measure is written at a first-year graduate school reading level?

So, if it’s best to have a year of graduate school behind you, in order to best understand the writing level of the average statewide ballot measure, what do the majority of voters do then, when the ballot language is unclear?

They skip the item on the ballot completely, or they will just guess as to what the question means, even though that may represent a awed understanding of the issue altogether.

And if the questions are rather lengthy, like the 84 word count of this so-called “term limit” measure on the ballot next month, voters will often skip those too, because of the time required to read the question, not to mention that the Louisiana Election Code limits each voter to only three minutes in the voting booth before poll commissioners are required to remove you from the booth altogether (unless you are using an audio ballot).

So, how about some plain language, for a change? What if next month’s ballot initiative was written more simply, like this:

Amend Paragraph A, Section 3-01 of Article III of the Caddo Parish Home Rule Charter, to increase the number of consecutive four-year terms allowed for Commissioners from three to five.

That’s easy enough, right? After all, study after study show that questions written in a way that are difficult to read have less people voting on them, and that plain language improves accuracy in voting, as well, because voters know exactly what they are voting for. And that’s good for everyone, regardless of their reading grade level.

If public servants, like the Caddo Parish commissioners, want to ensure that people vote their intentions, then they must likewise make sure that the voters understand the language on their ballot.

Louis R. Avallone is a Shreveport businessman and attorney. He is also a former aide to U.S. Representative Jim McCrery and editor of The Caddo Republican. His columns have appeared regularly in The Forum since 2007. Follow him on Facebook, on Twitter @louisravallone or by email at louisavallone@mac.com.

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