SAVE OUR SECRET BALLOT AMENDMENTS PASS OVERWHELMINGLY
Written by on June 10, 2011, 04:54 PM
The Save Our Secret Ballot Amendment passed overwhelmingly in Tuesday’s elections, appearing on the ballot in Arizona, South Carolina, South Dakota, and Utah. Arizona’s Proposition 113 and Utah’s Amendment A garnered over sixty percent of the vote. The results in the other states were even more staggering: South Dakota’s Amendment K and South Carolina’s Amendment 2 captured “Yes” votes at a rate of seventy-nine percent and eighty-six percent, respectively.
The victories in the four states come in the midst of continued efforts by President Obama and Congressional Democrats to pass the Employee Free Choice Act, also known as “card check,” controversial legislation that would allow unions to organize any business of ten or more virtually overnight. Such legislation could have dire effects on the American economy in the midst of a wobbly recovery. Union activists predict that if passed, card check would usher in a tripling of union membership, greatly expanding Big Labor’s budget for political activism.
Said SOS Ballot National Coordinator, Tim Mooney: “The overwhelming victories in these four key states tonight sends a strong message to Washington that card check is not the right direction for our country. We don’t just want to kill the bill—we want to kill the idea of card check altogether.”
"The voters in these four states have stated overwhelmingly through large majorities that the right to vote without intimidation or harassment from employers or union bosses is a fundamental right,” added Chuck Warren, SOS Ballot Senior Strategist. “Hopefully Congress and Obama bureaucrats are listening to the voices of the American people and will not try to stick this unwise power grab down the throats of small businesses and working families."
If the Employee Free Choice Act is passed in a lame duck session of Congress later this year, it is anticipated that a legal battle will ensue over the question of federal preemption. The Goldwater Institute, a Phoenix-based think-tank, has already committed to representing the mandate of the voters in that fight. Those legal efforts would be led by Clint Bolick, the nationally respected constitutional lawyer who currently serves as Director of the Institute’s Scharf-Norton Litigation Center, having previously co-founded the Institute for Justice. Bolick noted, “Four states have passed a constitutional firewall against the assault on the secret ballot. For those who have promised a legal challenge, our response is simple: Bring it on.”
SOS Ballot has also anticipated the possibility that the National Labor Relations Board, currently overseen by recess-appointee Craig Becker, a former union activist himself, might try to enact card check through rule-making. Mooney warned that SOS Ballot would take immediate action if this occurs. “NLRB better not try to push this through when the voters have so clearly spoken. To do so would immediately prompt SOS Ballot to push for identical amendments on the ballot in Michigan, Ohio, and Florida, must-win states for President Obama in the 2012 election,” Mooney stated. “The Save Our Secret Ballot Amendment has proven to be a strong wedge issue for voters, so doing so would clearly have an impact in Obama’s re-election opportunity.”
The victories in the four states come in the midst of continued efforts by President Obama and Congressional Democrats to pass the Employee Free Choice Act, also known as “card check,” controversial legislation that would allow unions to organize any business of ten or more virtually overnight. Such legislation could have dire effects on the American economy in the midst of a wobbly recovery. Union activists predict that if passed, card check would usher in a tripling of union membership, greatly expanding Big Labor’s budget for political activism.
Said SOS Ballot National Coordinator, Tim Mooney: “The overwhelming victories in these four key states tonight sends a strong message to Washington that card check is not the right direction for our country. We don’t just want to kill the bill—we want to kill the idea of card check altogether.”
"The voters in these four states have stated overwhelmingly through large majorities that the right to vote without intimidation or harassment from employers or union bosses is a fundamental right,” added Chuck Warren, SOS Ballot Senior Strategist. “Hopefully Congress and Obama bureaucrats are listening to the voices of the American people and will not try to stick this unwise power grab down the throats of small businesses and working families."
If the Employee Free Choice Act is passed in a lame duck session of Congress later this year, it is anticipated that a legal battle will ensue over the question of federal preemption. The Goldwater Institute, a Phoenix-based think-tank, has already committed to representing the mandate of the voters in that fight. Those legal efforts would be led by Clint Bolick, the nationally respected constitutional lawyer who currently serves as Director of the Institute’s Scharf-Norton Litigation Center, having previously co-founded the Institute for Justice. Bolick noted, “Four states have passed a constitutional firewall against the assault on the secret ballot. For those who have promised a legal challenge, our response is simple: Bring it on.”
SOS Ballot has also anticipated the possibility that the National Labor Relations Board, currently overseen by recess-appointee Craig Becker, a former union activist himself, might try to enact card check through rule-making. Mooney warned that SOS Ballot would take immediate action if this occurs. “NLRB better not try to push this through when the voters have so clearly spoken. To do so would immediately prompt SOS Ballot to push for identical amendments on the ballot in Michigan, Ohio, and Florida, must-win states for President Obama in the 2012 election,” Mooney stated. “The Save Our Secret Ballot Amendment has proven to be a strong wedge issue for voters, so doing so would clearly have an impact in Obama’s re-election opportunity.”
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