Every year during the elections, there are amendments that may be confusing to voters—this year, the same-sex amendment has gotten a lot of attention in Hawaii. A communications professor from Honolulu Pacific University explained why it’s important for voters not to leave parts of their ballot blank.

HONOLULU (Island News) -- As most of Hawaii's voters should have gotten their ballots in the mail, every election year there is a list of amendments on the back that may come off as confusing but shouldn’t be overlooked.

Each county has its own but there are two every voter statewide will see. One of them has gotten a lot of attention dealing with same-sex marriage.

Here's the question: "Shall the state constitution be amended to repeal the legislature's authority to reserve marriage to opposite-sex couples?"

Legal language has left many voters scratching their heads. Political analyst and Hawaii Pacific University professor John Hart simplified it and said that no matter how you vote, don’t leave it blank.

Hart spoke about the significance of voting, "In other words, if you don't want the legislature to have the ability to stop same-sex marriage you vote ‘yes’ on this. People talk about us as a democracy. We're actually a republic: we elect people who make decisions for us and if we don't like the decisions they make, then we vote them out. There are occasions like this when the legislation is functionally directly in front of the public taking a direct vote on, rather than letting the legislature decide what to do."

Hart said that typically once the public decides on this year's election amendments, changes will happen almost instantly.