6 amendments on the Nov ballot. What are we thinking?

Some of them sound good to me.

What are they?

Here's what is listed in my sample ballot. All six are a For or Against choice.

Constitutional amendment protecting the right of the people to hunt, fish, and harvest wildlife.

Constitutional amendment to strengthen protections for victims of crime; to establish certain absolute basic rights for victims; and to ensure the enforcement of these rights.

Constitutional amendment to reduce the income tax rate in North Carolina to a maximum allowable rate of seven percent (7%).

Constitutional amendment to require voters to provide photo identification before voting in person.

Constitutional amendment to change the process for filling judicial vacancies that occur between judicial elections from a process in which the Governor has sole appointment power to a process in which the people of the State nominate individuals to fill vacancies by way of a commission comprised of appointees made by the judicial, executive, and legislative branches charged with making recommendations to the legislature as to which nominees are deemed qualified; then the legislature will recommend at least two nominees to the Governor via legislative action not subject to gubernatorial veto; and the Governor will appoint judges from among these nominees.

Constitutional amendment to establish an eight-member Bipartisan Board of Ethics and Elections Enforcement in the Constitution to administer ethics and elections law.

Harnett County Sample Ballot

1) Constitutional amendment
protecting the right of the people
to hunt, fish, and harvest wildlife.

2) Constitutional amendment to
strengthen protections for victims
of crime; to establish certain
absolute basic rights for victims;
and to ensure the enforcement of
these rights.

3) Constitutional amendment to
reduce the income tax rate in
North Carolina to a maximum
allowable rate of seven percent
(7%).

4) Constitutional amendment to
require voters to provide photo
identification before voting in
person.

5) Constitutional amendment to
change the process for filling
judicial vacancies that occur
between judicial elections from a
process in which the Governor
has sole appointment power to a
process in which the people of the
State nominate individuals to fill
vacancies by way of a
commission comprised of
appointees made by the judicial,
executive, and legislative
branches charged with making
recommendations to the
legislature as to which nominees
are deemed qualified; then the
legislature will recommend at least
two nominees to the Governor via
legislative action not subject to
gubernatorial veto; and the
Governor will appoint judges from
among these nominees.

6) Constitutional amendment to
establish an eight-member
Bipartisan Board of Ethics and
Elections Enforcement in the
Constitution to administer ethics
and elections law.

On their face I can support 1-4. Not so much 5-6 but things are rarely so simple. Hence my post looking for deeper insights.

So long as we get the Socialist out of the Governor's office next time around, I don't care about 5.  1-4 I agree with on principle, but there may be unintended consequences.

So #1 will remove the need for hunting and fishing licenses?
I'm for 1-4. Number 5 needs to be that NC doesn't give a shit about NFA and machine guns are available OTC

100%

ROFL. Yeah right! NC loves fees in all forms and fashions. Hunting and fishing licenses are one of their favs along with professional licenses. These fees will never go away. The proposed amendment simply is designed to set "traditional" hunting and fishing as the preferred means of controlling and managing wildlife. the word "traditional" isnt defined in the proposal, which is a problem. If you go far enough back, spears and rocks were the traditional hunting method. I would like it to say centerfire smokeless powder firearms.
#5 deals with Judicial Appointments and seeks to transfer that power from the Governor to the Legislature. Its a big power grad for the legislature, nothing more, as is #6 that proposes to transfer power over Ethics and Elections Boards from the Governor to the Legislature as well as eliminating the 1 non partisan member. Another power grab. I am against both 5 & 6. I despise Cooper as much as anyone but giving the legislature more power is a bad idea. YMMV.

Too vaguely written...gives the legislature too much power.  Vote NO on all 6!!!!

Rereading them all with a more skepitcal and critical eye, I beleive you are correct. Should you have to provide photo ID to vote? Hell Yes! but the proposal says nothing about what that ID would or could be. It talks more about exceptions than it does the rule itself.
About the only one that appears straight forward is the income tax ceiling proposal of 7% versus current 10%. Considering we are at 5.499%, this seems unnecessary other than the fact that as NC become more purple, the Dems will want to hike taxes to support their spending addicition. Maybe this was an attempt to limit the insanity proactively.

Anyone have anymore insight? All I see is "Protect the constitution" signs, but I was confused when I saw a Hillary bumper sticker in the driveway of one.

The Dems are highly opposed to taking power from Cooper, which almost makes me want to pass them.
I found this fairly informative https://medium.com/@Jeff_Jackson/a-close-look-at-the-six-constitutional-amendments-on-your-ballot-43a77714dbfc

Vote NO on all 6.  If you read the entire amendments, rather than the blurb the legislature is putting out there, you will see that they are vague, costly, and will give too much power to the legislature.  Don't let either party pull the wool over your eyes...vote NO on all 6.

We don't want that power ANYWHERE!  It's not about Cooper as he's likely not going to get a second term in this state.  It is about limiting the power of government in general, and honestly, I'm a bit perplexed that people chime in saying to vote no on EVERYTHING.  When I grew up, my father was a registered Democrat, but always voted for the weakest candidate to spoil their elections.  He voted "no" on everything that involved raising taxes including every school bond.  Made voting easier for him, I guess.  He'd vote Republican in every election, even if it was a yellow dog.

I read through everything and I'm probably voting yes on them all.  Yeah, it's a bit of a power grab, but it puts that power closer to the people than one dicktater, no matter his political affiliation.  Luckily, the SJW crowd have short memories and they hated North Carolina before the gay bathroom law, so maybe Cooper's replacement will be conservative.

Would you mind pointing out what is wrong with the voter ID amendment?

I read that facebook meme too
A search brought me to this page that has all of the Bill numbers https://www.sosnc.gov/divisions/nc_constitutional_documents/nc_constitutional_amendments

specifically to the voter ID:
that sent me to this PDF https://www.sosnc.gov/static_forms/NC_Constitutional_Documents/2018/H1092_Official_Explanation.pdf
that listed this Bill Number https://www2.ncleg.net/BillLookup/2017/H1092
that broght me to the text of the amendment here https://www.ncleg.net/Sessions/2017/Bills/House/PDF/H1092v5.pdf

its not just all willie nillie these amendments are bills

Actual language of the Bill for amendment 1
https://www.ncleg.net/EnactedLegislation/SessionLaws/HTML/2017-2018/SL2018-96.html

Amendment 2
https://www.ncleg.net/EnactedLegislation/SessionLaws/HTML/2017-2018/SL2018-110.html

Amendment 3
https://www.ncleg.net/EnactedLegislation/SessionLaws/HTML/2017-2018/SL2018-119.html

Amendment 4
https://www.ncleg.net/Sessions/2017/Bills/House/HTML/H1092v5.html

Amendment 5
https://www.ncleg.net/EnactedLegislation/SessionLaws/HTML/2017-2018/SL2018-132.html

Amendment 6
https://www.ncleg.net/EnactedLegislation/SessionLaws/HTML/2017-2018/SL2018-133.html

Thanks for the links!

I'm all for hunting and it's a GOD given right , so yes for that one.

Voter ID requirements HELL YES!.
DUMOCRATS say it disenfranchises the poor minorities bull crap you got to have an ID for damn near everything including signing up for government benefits!!
Only a fool would have an ID requirement other than your driver's license/ state id, so I cant imagine any other form of I'd being allowed.

Less power to the governor and more power to the people I think I'll vote Yes on that one.

7 % tax cap that keeps the Democrats from taxing the f*** out of us that's a no-brainer.

I'll most likely vote yes for all.

You're making a lot of assumptions about things not expressly included in the bills. I follow your logic and agree with it but I have zero faith in the government so I therefore cannot make the same leap of faith in believing they will do the right things with details not spelled out in the bills.

The local Republican group sent me a letter telling me who to vote for and to vote yes for the amendments. Considering how shady it seems most NC Republican candidates are it makes me want to vote against it

If the democrats are opposed to them, they must be wonderful amendments...

It sounds like we have a lot of liberal members in NC based on the opposition to amendments like Voter ID and lowering the income tax cap...

I don't think anyone is opposed to those things. We are trying to be educated because what is called "The Income Tax Cap Bill" could end up having all sorts of other taxes in it to make up for it. And the "Voter ID Bill" could establish that you don't need to be a citizen just have a formal ID that we issue (or will now issue thanks to the bill) to everyone. Blindly voting for it is stupid.

But hey, I can't believe anyone voted against the Affordable Care Act. I mean, what could possibly be in it?

I study and work on the edge of the NC public policy arena.

The Democrats never really got the income tax above 7.75%. Setting a cap is a good way to incentivize keeping government small. Yes, there is some risk involved, but income taxes are one of the most visible taxes and keeping personal and corporate income taxes low encourages growth.

The Voter ID bill is meant to keep ineligible voters like illegal immigrants from participating in our elections. Do you really expect Republicans to enact legislation letting illegals vote? I have never heard that argument before, but it blows my mind that you think that would happen.

The board of elections and judicial vacancy amendments basically reinforce the power of the legislature, keeping the governor from asserting authority. Support for that is mainly based on one's view of what branch should generally win in an executive vs legislative power struggle. The nice thing about the judicial vacancy amendment is that it takes nominations from a variety of people and forces the governor to weigh at least two nominees, and not just give one of their staffers a seat on the bench as a thank-you (which happens with some frequency)

The victim's rights amendment (Marsy's Law) puts more of a burden on the government to inform violent crime victims and their families of the whereabouts of their attackers. Most people would agree that's the moral thing to do. It will cost money to implement though, as DA offices will have to devote time and material to informing families.

The hunting rights amendment basically entrenches that their is a right to harvest wildlife by traditional means, but that the state may set reasonable limits. This is not a big change, but what it will do is help prevent the state from passing an outright ban on hunting/fishing/trapping.

I think these are all reasonable policy ideas. There has been a lot of overreaction and hullabaloo from the left. I would encourage conservatives who are unsure of what to think to read material from sources like CarolinaJournal.com or nccivitas.org that help explain the amendments. You can vote either way on them, but don't allow liberal messaging like "nix all six" to be the deciding factor for your vote.

Oh, and please tell all of your friends to vote for Republican judges. We're staring down a likely 5-2 liberal majority on the state supreme court next year.

I'll stop now. I tend to get annoyed when I see people on the right nitpicking their own side and voting with the left or refusing to vote. The right needs to learn how to trust the process of incrementalism like the left traditionally did.

Well said.

I’m voting yes to all. Simply because all the billboards bought by Replacements Ltd. on 40/85 say to vote against them.

Ha! I like the cut of your jib for sure. I wish they had done a much better job writing the bills. I support 4 of them in principle but as written they left far too much room to be bastardized for me to support. I hope they all go down in flames and get rewritten so that I can.