Just say 'yes' to constitutional convention

To the editor:

This November, I will be eagerly voting yes for a constitutional convention.

New York has a dysfunctional state legislature and a broken democracy. We ranked 45th in voter turnout, and have the most regressive voting laws in the country. I am among the more than 3 million independents who are prevented from voting in our primaries, which are all too often definitive. 

It is time for our constitution to guarantee full voting rights for all New Yorkers.

Unlike our federal Constitution — where political parties are never mentioned — our state constitution entrenches party control over the very running of our elections. The boards of elections are expressly run by the Democrats and Republicans. The time has come to put an end to that patronage game.

We need to remind our state legislature who they work for — the people, not the special interests. The best way to do that is for us to exercise self-governance and vote for a constitutional convention. This will require we stay engaged — to elect delegates in 2018, and then thoughtfully examine the proposals they make to us in 2019.

A constitutional convention process gives us a chance to move our state forward on a host of issues that the legislature has refused to act on.

There has been a lot of fear spread about the dangers of voting for a constitutional convention. The No. 1 argument I have heard is that a constitutional convention could put public employee pensions at risk. I was concerned, and did my homework, only to discover this is not true.

It was actually through a constitutional convention that we made pensions a contract between the state and the individual. That contract cannot be legally changed retroactively without violating the U.S. Constitution. Not to mention, any change would have to be voted on by the voters of New York. 

I have more confidence in my fellow voters, upstate and downstate, than I do in the state legislature.

Cathy Stewart