The language for amendments on election ballots is confusing. There are several instances where you are led to believe that you are voting for something, when in reality you are voting for the opposite. For adult education students and English language learners, this process is all the more intimidating. Since the results of the election affect your students, take the time to help them go through the amendments. Here are a few sites you can use to help with this process!
Personally, I find the newspaper’s guides to be most helpful. They explain what each of the amendments mean in plain language, and briefly explain the each side.
The Times for Apalachicola and Carrabelle has a nice way of explaining the amendments and implication in a paragraph or two for each measure.
The Orlando Sentinel has a piece written a bit more informally, but it explains what a “Yes vote” means.
If you are looking for something more formal than a newspaper, the Collins Center has a list of the amendments, what they would do, what a vote yes and no would do, and then provides additional information below. The only issue is that it is not necessarily in “plain language” and the additional information might seem complicated to adult learners.
Let us know if you have better resources! We’d love to share them!
