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THE PRESIDENT: Delegate Johnson.
DELEGATE JOHNSON: Our amend-
ment does not alter that particular portion
of section 10.03. It does not reach that part
of 10.03 where it says "or may submit the
question of calling a constitutional con-
vention to the voters of the State at any
time". It leaves that intact.
THE PRESIDENT: Delegate Johnson, I
think Delegate Miller's point is that if your
amendment is adopted, you have not
changed the second part of the sentence
grammatically. The amended language
would go to the second part and she is
asking whether you would let Style make
it clear that was not intended?
DELEGATE JOHNSON: Yes.
THE PRESIDENT: Is there any fur-
ther discussion?
(There was no response.)
Are you ready for the question?
(Call for the question.)
The Clerk will ring the quorum bell.
The question arises on the adoption of
Amendment No. 7 to Committee Recom-
mendations GP-7, GP-8, GP-9, GP-12, R&P-
1 and LB-B as amended by Style Commit-
tee Report S&D-17, as modified. A vote Aye
is a vote in favor of the amendment; a
vote No is a vote against.
Cast your votes.
Has every delegate voted?
Delegate Boileau?
DELEGATE BOILEAU: No.
THE PRESIDENT: Delegate Boileau,
are you as sad as you looked at that
moment?
DELEGATE BOILEAU: Not quite, Mr.
President.
THE PRESIDENT: Have all the dele-
gates voted? Does any other delegate de-
sire to change the vote?
(There was no response.)
The Clerk will record the vote.
There being 47 votes in the affirmative
and 61 in the negative, the motion is lost
and the amendment is rejected.
Delegate Johnson, do you now desire to
offer your Amendment J?
DELEGATE JOHNSON: This was the
understanding of the sponsors of the
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amendment, and I feel it my duty and re-
sponsibility to call up Amendment J, yes,
Mr. President.
THE PRESIDENT: Will the pages
please distribute Amendment J?
This will be Amendment No. 8.
THE PRESIDENT: This will be Amend-
ment No. 8. The Clerk will read the
amendment.
READING CLERK: Amendment No. 8
to Committee Recommendations GP-7, GP-8,
GP-9, GP-12, R&P-1, and LB-3 as amended
by Style Committee Report S&D-17 by Del-
egates Johnson, Della, Dorsey, Dukes, Hos-
tetter, Jett, Kahl, Rush, Rybczynski, Sie-
wierski, Soul, Stern, Sybert, H. Taylor,
and Weidemeyer: On page 2, section 10.03,
Constitutional Convention strike out all of
lines 18 and 19 and insert in lieu thereof
the words "The General Assembly may".
THE PRESIDENT: The amendment is
submitted by Delegate Johnson and sec-
onded by the co-sponsors. The Chair rec-
ognizes Delegate Johnson.
DELEGATE JOHNSON: Mr. President
and ladies and gentlemen of the Conven-
tion; the purpose of this amendment is to
provide that prior to the calling of a consti-
tutional convention by the legislature or
prior to a constitutional convention, the
question must be put on referendum. We
are deleting the first portion of section
10.03, so that it would read, in effect, "the
General Assembly may submit the question
of calling a constitutional convention to the
voters of the State at any time." It would
require only majority action of the legisla-
ture to set up the machinery to do so, but
the question would be put to all the citi-
zens of the State as to whether or not
they would like to have the constitutional
convention. Kindly bear in mind that re-
gardless of this action, at least every
twenty years the action will be placed on
the referendum ballot.
May I reiterate that at least thirty-six
states require action by more than a simple
majority of the General Assembly. We
sincerely believe it is a serious mistake in
constitutional drafting to require the call-
ing of a constitutional convention by ma-
jority action of the General Assembly
alone, particularly when you consider that
it takes three-fifths, and rightfully so, we
believe, three-fifths action of the General
Assembly just to make an amendment to
the Constitution.
It is just inconsistent. You require, un-
der section 10.02, for three-fifths action of
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