[Cheburashka]

However, enacting it via a statewide initiative measure arguably does violate the Constitution. This power is reserved to the Legislature of each state.

---

An excellent point and one I had not considered. But then the question becomes, what constitutes a legislature? Can a state have more than one? There is nothing in the Constitution that specifies what a state legislature is, that it is X number of people elected by all the people of the state, grouped in districts, although that is how all American states have arranged matters. (Remember that at the time the Constitution was written the idea that all people would be allowed to vote was not a given. Property qualifications were frequent, and women didn’t have the right to vote at all). Can all the citizens of the state constitute a legislature for this purpose and set the method of choice?

An interesting question for the legislators: if this initiative passes, do they sue on this basis to nullify it and risk the wrath of the the people at the next election?

On the other hand the Founding Fathers most emphatically did not like the idea of just letting the people vote on such matters. That's why they came up with a representative republic and not a democracy.

As a Constitutionalist I will have to think carefully about the implications of this point, because right now I'm undecided.

[savedbygrace]

Can all the citizens of the state constitute a legislature for this purpose and set the method of choice?

No, because the Constitution guarantees to each State a Republican form of government.

[DoughtyOne]

Thanks for the comments. You raise a good point, but then one was raised by another person in return also. I will have to side with him in that the Legislature would seem by definition those elected to office.

The Legislature is not authorized to defer that decision to the people. However, it could be argued they decided to defer. The language states that they decide how the votes are disbursed. It does not say that they defer the decision.