While everyone keeps talking about Puerto Rico and its upcoming chance to become a new state (woo!), there are other US Territories that are undergoing some nontrivial status changes. One of those happens to be the US Virgin Islands. Quietly, oh so quietly, at least on the mainland, the Virgin Islands has been trying to adopt a constitution. Again.
This is not a new endeavor, but it has been a generation since they attempted it. Last time the Virgin Islands attempted to adopt their own constitution was in 1980. The voters rejected the document: there must be at least a 50% + 1 approval for it to pass. Apparently, the definition of just who is a Virgin Islander caused the failure. There were previous attempts as well. There's a quick write up over of the history of the past attempts.
Last summer they had an election to determine who would be sitting as delegates for this new attempt at a constitutional convention. The results came in and were promptly disputed in court. Big Surprise. However, despite the delay, the convention is underway. Once it's complete the Constitution must go to the voters. It, too, needs a 50% + 1 votes to go to the next step and more than 50% of the voters need to participate in the plebiscite. The US Virgin Islands Constitution is then sent on to the President and US Congress for approval (or rejection or modification, if I am not mistaken).
The problem is that the voters have uberdoubleplus apathy. There is serious concern whether or not there will be enough voters to participate in the vote to get more than 50% as required just to participate. If less than that turns out, then the whole thing falls apart. It may restart. Or it may languish for another generation.
This is not a new endeavor, but it has been a generation since they attempted it. Last time the Virgin Islands attempted to adopt their own constitution was in 1980. The voters rejected the document: there must be at least a 50% + 1 approval for it to pass. Apparently, the definition of just who is a Virgin Islander caused the failure. There were previous attempts as well. There's a quick write up over of the history of the past attempts.
Last summer they had an election to determine who would be sitting as delegates for this new attempt at a constitutional convention. The results came in and were promptly disputed in court. Big Surprise. However, despite the delay, the convention is underway. Once it's complete the Constitution must go to the voters. It, too, needs a 50% + 1 votes to go to the next step and more than 50% of the voters need to participate in the plebiscite. The US Virgin Islands Constitution is then sent on to the President and US Congress for approval (or rejection or modification, if I am not mistaken).
The problem is that the voters have uberdoubleplus apathy. There is serious concern whether or not there will be enough voters to participate in the vote to get more than 50% as required just to participate. If less than that turns out, then the whole thing falls apart. It may restart. Or it may languish for another generation.
1 comment:
The Northern Marianas Islands tried this in 1995. They had a Constitution already, but it needed amending. So they called a Con-Con.
It was a disaster.
Oh, they produced a pretty good Constitution. But the voters overwhelmingly rejected it. The problem was, everyone disliked something... and "I hate this one provision" tends to outweigh "overall, this is pretty good".
I don't know much about the USVI setup, but it wouldn't surprise me if it went the same way.
Doug M.
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