Texas Constitution second-most amended in U.S. after Tuesday election

By Bethany Blankley | The Center Square

Texas voters approved all eight propositions on the ballot Tuesday to amend the Texas Constitution. Other than Alabama, no other state has amended its constitution as much as Texas has.

Since its most recent adoption in 1876, the Texas Constitution has been amended 515 times, including these eight amendments.

Between 1824 and 1876, the existing geographical region of Texas was once part of Mexico, then an independent republic, then a Confederate state, then finally a state within the United States. The 1876 Constitution is it’s fifth since it became a U.S. state.

Critics of the ballot measure language proposed by the state legislature and Secretary of State’s Office say several propositions were intentionally worded vaguely. Critics also said that, while some of the issues may be laudable, they do not qualify to permanently alter a state constitution, or qualify as a constitutional issue. Voting rights would be a constitutional matter, whereas cancer research or rodeo funding are not, they said.

For example, Proposition 1, which passed by a vote of 83% to 16%, amended the state constitution to “authorize professional sports team charitable foundations of organizations sanctioned by the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association or the Women’s Professional Rodeo Association to conduct charitable raffles at rodeo venues.”

Proposition 2, perhaps the most controversial, permanently amends the constitution to allow counties to increase debt or raise property taxes, even though the language does not explicitly state this and most voters did not understand the question, critics argued.

The ballot question asked voters to approve or reject a “constitutional amendment authorizing a county to finance the development or redevelopment of transportation or infrastructure in unproductive, underdeveloped, or blighted areas in the county.” It did not state financing could range from issuing bonds (debt) to increasing property taxes. It passed by a vote of 63% to 36%.

Proposition 3 was added in response to the state shutdowns imposed by Gov. Greg Abbott, who initially defined religious organizations as nonessential and ordered them to remain closed. The ballot question asked voters to amend the constitution to “prohibit this state or a political subdivision of this state from prohibiting or limiting religious services of religious organizations.” Voters approved the measure by a vote of 62% to 37%.

Proposition 4 passed by a vote of 58% to 41%. Its vaguely worded language, “changing the eligibility requirements for a justice of the Supreme Court, a judge of the Court of Criminal Appeals, a justice of a Court of Appeals, and a district judge” did not state what those eligibility requirements were.

In actuality, it requires judges to be Texas residents at the time they are elected. It also requires that they be practicing licensed lawyers in Texas for at least 10 years and have no suspensions of their licenses during this time. It requires district court judges to have eight years of Texas law practice and/or court judge experience, with no suspensions.

Proposition 5 amends the constitution “to give additional power to the State Commission on Judicial Conduct related to judicial candidates,” without stating what those powers are. It passed by a vote of 59% to 40%.

Proposition 6 was also proposed in response to Abbott’s lockdowns, over which he is still being sued, for prohibiting loved ones from visiting their family members in nursing home facilities. It amends the constitution to allow residents of certain facilities to designate an essential caregiver for in-person visitation who now as a matter of constitutional law cannot be denied in-person visitation. It passed by a vote of 87% to 12%.

Proposition 7 amends the constitution “to allow the surviving spouse of a person who is disabled to receive a limitation on the school district ad valorem taxes on the spouse’s residence homestead if the spouse is 55 years of age or older at the time of the person’s death.” It passed by a vote of 87% to 12%.

Proposition 8 amends the constitution to authorize the Legislature “to provide for an exemption from ad valorem taxation of all or part of the market value of the residence homestead of the surviving spouse of a member of the armed services of the United States who is killed or fatally injured in the line of duty.” It passed by a vote of 87% to 12%.