Constitutional convention is unnecessary

Few Missouri voters are aware of it, but they'll decide in November if a constitutional convention should be held to revise and amend the state's constitution.

The reason the vote on the question comes as a surprise is because it appears on the ballot every 20 years.

With that kind of timetable, no wonder the fact that it comes up this year even took state officials, other than those responsible for putting it on the ballot, by surprise.

The Missouri Constitution, adopted in 1945, requires the question be put before voters every 20 years. The question was soundly rejected in both previous elections. In 1962, 63.7 percent of voters opposed a convention, and in 1982, 69.5 percent were against it.

Article XII, Section 3 of the Missouri Constitution requires that the secretary of state put the question on the ballot.

The secretary of state's office said research began last year in preparation for the vote.

While the secretary of state puts it on the ballot by his own initiative, the provision also allows lawmakers to put the question before voters at any election between the mandated 20-year cycles.

That has never happened.

Voter approval of the question would set off a chain of events Missouri hasn't experienced since the 1945 constitutional convention, including the calling of a second election within six months to select convention delegates.

Former Republican state Sen. Emory Melton of Cassville, who was in the legislature in 1982, remembers there was no major movement that year for or against calling a convention.

Neither has there been any effort either way this year, and Missourians will be better off if it remains that way.

The reason is because a constitutional convention is unnecessary absent a need for a major revamping of the document, and no one agrees that is necessary.

Besides, the Constitution contains provisions that allow for proposed constitutional amendments to be put before voters on specific issues, and that is done quite regularly.

And, a convention would serve little purpose but to offer special interests a chance to bring about changes that would serve few Missourians' interests other than special interests.

The constitutional convention vote serves little purpose and is something Missourians could have done without.