The Constitution of the State of Hawaii ("Constitution") is such a foundational document, providing the basis for other laws and rules, that it takes quite a lot to change it!

From Hawaii Public Access Room, September, 2018 

This year, on the November 6th ballot, you will have two questions asked of you. Roughly,

1) Do you think the Constitution should be changed to authorize the Legislature to establish, as provided by law, a surcharge on investment real property to be used to support public education?

2) Do you think there should be a Constitutional Convention to consider other ways in which the Constitution might be changed?

At the Public Access Room (PAR), we do not take a position on either of these questions. However, we thought a little context might make things a bit easier for you.

What’s in the Constitution?

On pages 2-3, you will find titles and links to the various sections of the Constitution. You can select the sections you are interested in, or start with one and use the "previous" or "next" arrows at the bottom of the webpages to navigate through the document. As you will see, it doesn't take that long to get through the whole thing!

The Constitution provides the framework for Hawaii's government and laws ̶the specifics are usually spelled out in the Hawaii Revised Statutes (HRS). Take a look at the articles and sections ̶ the Constitution establishes a separation of government power, ensures representation of the people, and provides protections of individual and collective human rights. The framers of the Constitution recognized that, over time, the people might decide that the rules and principles they want government to follow may need to be fixed or made better. So they made sure that the Constitution spells out exactly how it can be changed or amended.

Starting on page 4, we'll take you through the two methods of proposing changes to the Constitution. And, on page 6, you'll find a bit more information about Constitutional Conventions

read … Con-Con