Amend the State Constitution?

A regular visitor to Proof Positive made the following comment on my No on 14 piece:

You have only one thing that I like (in California) and it is the Proposition votes your constitution allows. I wish all states had such a measure.

My reply:

It's a mixed blessing. Yes the people can have a voice in the governing of the state, but all too often, the proposition process is used by the legislature to rid themselves of any hard governance choices and by folk with deep pockets who can flood the state with advertising and signature gatherers.

What we sometimes end up with is the state Constitution amended with a bad law,by simple majority, that it takes a 2/3 vote to undo.

Often times, the bad legislation is sold to the people via Hollywood celebrities and over simplified slogans. Once the constitution is amended, then the courts are free to work their mischief on any loopholes in the text.

We pay a full time legislature to write the law. Too often, they kick the can down the road and it's a crap shoot what we finally end up with!

I was speaking with my brother this evening. My brother the Democrat. My brother the elected Democrat. And I talked to him about Prop 14. We'd talked before about Prop 16 before, the "Please Don't Complete With Us, Love PG&E" initiative.
He said he'd voted against all but one of the ballot propositions. My heart swelled with joy! There may be hope for him yet.
As I mentioned to him tonight and touched upon with the commenter, was, to make matters worse, the proposition only needs a simple majority of the votes cast in any given election to become a part of the state constitution.
Did you get that? Not a majority of citizens. Not a majority of registered voters. But a simple majority of those who show up to vote. In an off year election, if only 15% of registered voters show up to vote, then 7.5% of registered voters, plus one, can rewrite the state constitution. And if only 73% of eligible voters are registered, as they were in May 2009, then, conceivably a little over 5% of registered voters could alter the state constitution. Add insult to injury and figure that at least some portion of that five per cent may have been swayed by shallow, emotional or misleading advertising, and a surprisingly small percentage of people who actually know what the hell is going on, are amending the Constitution, which can only be altered back by a two-thirds majority.

Welcome to California!

Cross posted at Left Coast Rebel