This is my closing message on a subject I’ve been obsessed with for the past few months, an important decision that you may not have heard about. I’m talking about the NY Constitutional Convention vote.

Election day is tomorrow, Tues. Nov. 7, and even though this is an odd-numbered year, there are some important local races and one really important question on the back of every New York ballot: Proposition 1 asks whether our state should hold a Constitutional Convention. This question comes up automatically every 20 years. If Yes wins, then we elect delegates to the convention, then they deliberate and propose amendments for us to approve or reject after the convention. Here’s a more detailed outline of the process.

I heard about the convention through a progressive Democratic club I volunteer with, New Kings Democrats. It took NKD (and me) a while to decide to support the convention, as there hasn’t been one in 50 years and the process is quite complicated. After a careful review of past conventions and the current political landscape in NY, I’m convinced that a convention is our best hope to get necessary reforms to our state government. I worked on this graphic explainer with NKD to explain why we support the convention. For me, the most important reforms we need are:

Easier voting — NY makes it harder to vote than almost any state, and has dismally low turnout in local races, helping state incumbents win re-election more than 90% of the time.

Ethics reform — NY has the most corrupt legislature in the US, and gerrymandering, “lulus”, and unlimited contributions allow the minority party to control the State Senate and stop most progressive legislation.

Environmental protections — NY must guarantee clean air and water for all and pledge to switch to renewable energy to prevent the worst effects of climate change.

If you’ve heard about this question at all, it’s probably through the very strong Vote No campaign from NY labor unions and groups like the NYCLU. It feels very strange to be arguing the other side from these groups I would normally be allied with, and I respect their point of view. I find it harder to respect some of the misinformation that a few opponents have spread, that public workers could lose their pensions (they won’t), that it’s too expensive (will cost around 0.1% of NY budget, or $5 per resident), or that conservative billionaires support the Convention (Vote No has outspent Yes by a huge margin).

But here’s my favorite quote from the Vote No side, Donna Lieberman of the NYCLU, quoted in Politico: “We don’t know what’s going to happen, and frankly I’m not prepared to rely on the bean counters and prognosticators to tell us what’s going to happen.” I read that, and thought — that’s me! I’m a proud bean-counter on this question, and the beans tell me it’s a great time for NY to fix our state government. When I first heard about the convention process, the first thing I wanted to know is, who’s going to run it? Our plodding governor, the minority Republicans who have captured the State Senate, or the majority Democrats who win every statewide race but can’t get much done? I talked to some political experts, dug up the 2016 NY Senate and Presidential election data, and spent a week building projections for a 2018 election of delegates to the Constitutional Convention. In every scenario I could come up with Democrats commanded a very strong majority of the 204 delegate seats. That sealed the deal for me — Democrats in New York have their flaws, but they aren’t going to take away our labor or environmental protections, and they’re our best hope for getting some basic reforms to help our state set an example of a progressive, transparent government in the shadow of Trump.

Delegate projections from our Daily News op ed

Once I had a handle on the delegate math, I got some help from graphics genius Will Adler to make a clear infographic of my projections, and Amber Sexton and I pitched an Op Ed to the NY Daily News. Getting that published was really exciting — I thought, once they see the numbers progressives in NY are going to line up to vote for this thing! Art Chang and Howard Graubard, along with many news articles, have independently confirmed that Democrats would control a NY convention, and no one from the Vote No side has come up with any projections that show otherwise, but, to my surprise, our detailed analysis has not turned the tide. Turns out the millions Vote No has spent on video ads, yard signs, and scary messages on social media have had a huge impact, and current polling shows Proposition 1 heading for defeat. I’ve spent quite a few discouraging hours on Facebook and Twitter arguing with fellow progressives that the benefits of the convention far outweigh the risks, and I’ve been accused of everything from being a naive “Bernie or Bust” fool to being a shill for the Koch brothers. But on the bright side I’ve learned a lot about the levers of local politics and I’ve met some really dedicated volunteers who give so much to causes like this, they make me feel like I’ve only realized a tiny fraction of my own potential. Whatever happens tomorrow, I’m planning to stay in the fight for a more progressive, transparent, and fair government.

Thanks for taking the time to read this, please remember to vote tomorrow and I hope you’ll consider voting Yes on Prop. 1. If you need to hear more, here’s one more really eloquent piece that I wish I’d written. Feel free to share this message if you’re inspired to. After election day I’ll get my focus back to making music but this work won’t be done — please reach out if you also want to get involved in fixing our local government, contact me on one of those dreadful social networks below.

Tony Melone

Twitter @tonymelone or on Facebook

Brooklyn, NY

A few more links for the very curious:

My first Op Ed in City & State on how a convention could fix judicial elections

Ross Barkan, Village Voice

Women need a voice in Constitution Betsy Gottbaum, Daily News

Adirondack Explorer supporting a Convention for environmental reasons

State Sen. Liz Krueger supporting the convention