OUACHITA PARISH, La (KTVE/KARD) — Early voting will begin soon for the October elections. We break down proposed amendment 1 so you can be prepared for the polls.
Dr. John Sutherlin, Chief Innovation and Research Officer at ULM, tells us what Amendment 1 is. “Over the last two or three years, states have been looking at ways to clamp down on foreign money services and in many ways the influence in state politics, and I think there’s roughly about 25 states that have enacted similar constitutional amendments that are being proposed in this amendment.”
Sutherlin goes in depth about what this amendment would do. “The effort of this amendment is to reduce or eliminate the influence of foreign money services or access in state politics. Lawmakers looked at this and said, Perhaps we should evaluate how foreign money influence and access are perhaps influencing the election process.”
Sutherlin explains the pros and cons. “Someone in favor of this is probably very concerned about any foreign nationals having an influence. Someone who would be against this will probably look at it and say that a lot of our elections statewide are underfunded, and sometimes campaigns are underfunded. So, getting resources from any source, whether foreign or domestic, should be an open process.”
