Abortion rights groups are making efforts to build on victories with new ballot measures. Conservatives have responded by piling up new legislatures to curb the ability of citizens and other lawmakers to place ballot measures.
The move by Republicans is explicitly aimed at making it difficult to give voters in red and purple states direct say over major issues, including abortion rights, experts say.
During legislative sessions in 2022, 109 bills were filed in state legislatures to alter the citizen-led ballot initiative process. Fifty eight of those would explicitly have made the process more difficult, according to a review by the Ballot Initiative Strategy Center.
Republican legislators seeking to restrain the placement of such ballot initiatives — including ones that would amend state constitutions — have already pre-filed at least 11 such measures in at least three states ahead of 2023 legislative sessions that kick off in January and February.
Experts say these efforts are a direct response by the GOP to the massive popular success of ballot initiatives on key issues, including abortion, expanding Medicaid, and raising the minimum wage.
Efforts to curb the ballot initiative process have increased because of a string of victories by abortion-rights groups. After the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade in June, rights activists put abortion directly on the ballot.
They were victorious in all six states that featured ballot initiatives around abortion access this year.
Those groups now plan more measures in at least 10 states over the next two years, building on the success of the ballot initiatives.
But those efforts would be severely curtailed — if not downright eviscerated — if conservatives move forward with their own measures to make it harder to place ballot initiatives.
For example, Republican legislators in Ohio have teamed up with the Republican secretary of state last month to write and advance legislation that would place a ballot measure before voters in a May special election. If approved, it would require a 60 percent threshold of support for future ballot measures to pass, as opposed to the current majority.
And in Missouri, legislators in the House have already pre-filed at least nine measures for the legislative session that kicks off next month, all of which seek to raise the requirements or thresholds necessary to pass ballot initiatives to amend the state constitution. Currently, Missouri law allows all ballot initiatives to pass with simple majorities.
Oklahoma has seen efforts to make it harder to place citizen-led ballot initiatives fail. But Conservatives are trying to press on with these efforts again and again.
South Dakota and North Dakota have seen Republican lawmakers signal they will try to raise the passage threshold for citizen-led ballot measures to change their state constitution.
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