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Ballot Questions and Proposed Amendments to the Pennsylvania Constitution: A Compilation with Statistics from 1958 to 2005

 

The Constitution of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania provides

that questions must be submitted to the voters for approval before two

things may occur: the incurring of public debt and the amendment of the

Constitution.

Section 7(a)(3) of Article VIII provides that "[d]ebt may be incurred

without limit for purposes specifically itemized in the law authorizing such

debt, if the question whether the debt shall be incurred has been

submitted to the electors and approved by a majority of those voting on

the question."

Section 1 of Article XI describes the procedure by which

amendments to the Constitution must be submitted to the electorate.

Amendments to this Constitution may be proposed in the Senate or

House of Representatives; and if the same shall be agreed to by a

majority of the members elected to each House, such proposed

amendment or amendments shall be entered on their journals with

the yeas and nays taken thereon, and the Secretary of the

Commonwealth shall cause the same to be published three months

before the next general election, in at least two newspapers in

every county in which such newspapers shall be published; and if,

in the General Assembly next afterwards chosen, such proposed

amendment or amendments shall be agreed to by a majority of the

members elected to each House, the Secretary of the

Commonwealth shall cause the same again to be published in the

manner aforesaid; and such proposed amendment or amendments

shall be submitted to the qualified electors of the State in such

manner, and at such time at least three months after being so

agreed to by the two Houses, as the General Assembly shall

prescribe; and, if such amendment or amendments shall be

approved by a majority of those voting thereon, such amendment or

amendments shall become a part of the Constitution; but no

amendment or amendments shall be submitted oftener than once in

five years. When two or more amendments shall be submitted they

shall be voted upon separately.

The questions submitted to the voters of the Commonwealth of

Pennsylvania from 1958 through 2005 and the results of the vote for each

question are presented in the following pages. Where a "question

summary" is provided, the exact language of the question could not be

found. Voter registration data is also provided at the end of each date's

entries.

 

JOINT STATE GOVERNMENT COMMISSION - GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE COMMONWEALTH OF PENNSYLVANIA
108 FINANCE BUILDING - HARRISBURG, PA 17120