Latest news with #citizeninitiatives
CNN
2 days ago
- Politics
- CNN
‘Our constitution is easy prey': GOP lawmakers work to shut down liberal ballot initiatives
In 2018, Toni Easter held a party in her yard in St. Louis to promote what would become a successful ballot initiative on redistricting — only to see it overturned when Republican lawmakers in Missouri put a competing initiative on the ballot. Then last year, she collected signatures in the successful effort to enshrine abortion rights in the Missouri Constitution. This year, the legislature approved a new referendum to try to reverse it. 'Our civil rights are being taken away,' said Easter, a retired fashion industry executive and co-founder of Respect Missouri Voters. Her group is working to put another measure on the Missouri ballot in 2026, one that would bar the state's lawmakers from overturning citizen-approved initiatives. Liberal activists in conservative-led states are facing similar challenges around the country. Republican lawmakers are working to cut off ballot measures that enact progressive policies by making it harder for citizen-led measures to qualify for a vote or be enforced. Locked out of power in Washington and in many statehouses, progressive activists have launched citizen initiatives to try to notch wins. Eleven states, for example, have backed abortion rights through citizen-approved initiatives since the Supreme Court's Dobbs ruling in 2022 ending a federally guaranteed right to abortion. 'State lawmakers have been using their power to subvert the will of the people,' said Chris Melody Fields Figueredo, the Ballot Initiative Strategy Center's executive director. The center tracks and helps promote ballot measures. 'They can't win fairly, so they've been rewriting the rules, no matter what the majority wants.' Conservative legislators around the country argue that moneyed interests from outside their states are fueling efforts to rewrite state constitutions in irresponsible ways. They argue the process itself is vulnerable to fraud, given the frequent use of paid canvassers to collect the voter signatures needed to put initiatives on the ballot. 'Our constitution is easy prey,' South Dakota state Sen. John Hughes, a Republican, argued during a committee hearing this year. He sponsored a successful resolution that will ask the state's voters next year to increase the threshold for passage to 60%, up from a simple majority. Nearly half the states allow citizen initiatives, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. State legislative efforts to restrict these kinds of ballot initiatives, however, have soared in recent years with at least 148 bills introduced this year, up from 76 during 2023 legislative sessions, according to a tally by the Ballot Initiative Strategy Center. South Dakota, which in 1898 became the first state in the country to allow an initiative and referendum process, has seen an array of ballot proposals in recent years. A successful effort in 2022 expanded Medicaid, while a failed initiative last year would have instituted a nonpartisan, top-two primary system for elections like the one used in California. If Hughes' effort is successful, South Dakota will join a handful of states, including Florida, with thresholds greater than 50%. Lawmakers in two other states, North Dakota and Utah, have also moved to ask voters to lift their thresholds to 60%. 'There is a groundswell of out of-of-state interests that want South Dakota to operate on a direct democracy basis, which is not how our government operates,' Hughes testified. 'Our constitution needs to be soberly and cautiously amended.' Florida's 60% bar led to the defeat of two recent citizen-led initiatives that won majorities – a move to enshrine abortion rights, which received 57% of the vote, and to legalize recreational marijuana, which drew 56%. Here are several other examples of recent changes made by Republicans: In Arkansas, the state's GOP-controlled legislature mandated that petition canvassers review a photo ID from each potential signer. And a new law gives Attorney General Tim Griffin the authority to reject proposed constitutional amendments with ballot language deemed higher than the eighth-grade reading level – a power Griffin has already exercised to disqualify potential measures this year. In Florida, a new law limits who can collect signatures to put proposed constitutional amendments on the ballot and bars an organization from sponsoring more than one initiative at a time. It also requires voters to include identifying information – such as the last four digits of their Social Security number – when they sign a petition. In Montana, a new law requires paid signature gatherers approaching voters to wear badges disclosing that they are paid and listing their state of residence. In Oklahoma, Gov. Keith Stitt recently signed a law mandating that no more than 10% of signatures for a ballot measure can come from counties with 400,000 or more people. Critics say the capping the number of signatures gathered in cities will make it nearly impossible to put initiatives on the ballot. Supporters say it will give rural voters a greater voice in the process. The fight over citizen-led initiatives dominated Missouri's legislative session, which saw the Republican-controlled legislature approve overturning a measure passed by voters last year that guaranteed paid sick leave and cost-of-living increases to the minimum wage. Missouri lawmakers also voted to put a new abortion referendum on the ballot that would repeal one approved by voters just seven months ago, guaranteeing a right to abortion until fetal viability. Doctors believe fetus viability to be around 22 to 24 weeks of pregnancy. The new initiative, authored by GOP state Sen. Adam Schnelting, would ban most abortions, with exceptions only for medical emergencies, fetal anomalies and cases of rape and incest, up to 12 weeks of pregnancy. An aide to Schnelting declined an interview. During floor debate last month, the Republican argued that proponents of the 2024 abortion-rights initiative had misled Missourians into believing women would be 'dying in our hospitals' because they were denied care. 'But most Missourians do not want abortion on demand,' he said. Respect Missouri Voters, the group Easter helped found, is now seeking volunteers to get an initiative on the 2026 ballot that would bar lawmakers from overturning citizen-led initiatives. If successful, it would demonstrate that 'people can reclaim their power,' she said, 'and we could actually have effective governance that represents us and our needs.' The group is hoping to raise $300,000 and recruit 2,500 volunteers by the end of this month so it can start collecting signatures in July.
Associated Press
07-05-2025
- Politics
- Associated Press
Lawmakers seek to rein in citizen ballot initiatives with new requirements for petitions
Citizen activists supporting a public vote on important issues could have to brush up on their reading, writing and arithmetic if they want to get their initiatives on next year's ballot in some states. A new Arkansas law will bar initiative ballot titles written above an eighth-grade reading level. And canvassers will have to verify that petition signers have either read the ballot title or had it read aloud to them. In South Dakota, sponsors will need to make sure their petition titles appears in 14-point type on the front page and 16-point font on the back, where people typically sign. And in Florida, volunteers will have to register with the state if they gather more than 25 petition signatures from outside their family or risk facing felony charges punishable by up to five years in prison. Across about dozen states, roughly 40 bills restricting or revamping the citizen initiative process have passed at least one legislative chamber this year, according to a review by The Associated Press. Many already have been signed into law. Some advocates for the initiative process are alarmed by the trend. 'Globally, as there's movements to expand direct democracy. In the United States it's contracting,' said Dane Waters, chair of the Initiative and Referendum Institute at the University of Southern California, who has advised ballot campaigns in over 20 nations. Most of the new restrictions come from Republican lawmakers in states where petitions have been used to place abortion rights, marijuana legalization and other progressive initiatives on the ballot. GOP lawmakers contend their measures are shielding state constitutions from outside interests. 'This is not a bill to restrict. It is a bill to protect — to make sure that our constitutional system is one of integrity, and that it's free of fraud,' said state Sen. Jennifer Bradley of Florida, where the new initiative requirements already have been challenged in court. A right in some states, but not others About half the U.S. states allow people to bypass their legislatures by gathering signatures to place proposed laws or constitutional amendments on the ballot. Since Oregon voters first used the process in 1904, a total of 2,744 citizen initiatives have appeared on statewide ballots, with 42% wining approval, according to the Initiative and Referendum Institute. But the process has long caused tension between voters and their elected representatives. Lawmakers often perceive the initiative process as 'an assault on their power and authority, and they want to limit it,' Waters said. 'They view it, in my opinion, as a nuisance – a gnat that keeps bothering them.' Restrictions on petition canvassers Because initiative petitions require thousands of signatures to qualify for the ballot, groups sponsoring them often pay people to solicit signatures outside shopping centers and public places. Some states now prohibit payments based on the number of signatures gathered. States also are trying to restrict who can circulate petitions. A new Arkansas law requires paid petition canvassers to live in the state. And a new Montana law will make petition circulators wear badges displaying their name and home state. The new Florida law expanding registration requirements for petition circulators also requires them to undergo state training and bars canvassers who are noncitizens, nonresidents or felons without their voting rights restored. More requirements for petition signers In addition to providing their name, address and birth date, people signing initiative petitions in Florida also will have to provide either their Florida driver's license, state identification card or the last four digits of their Social Security number. That information is not required in other states, said Kelly Hall, executive director of the Fairness Project, a progressive group that has backed dozens of ballot initiatives in states. Hall said people concerned about privacy might hesitate to sign petitions. 'I work in ballot measures, and I deeply support many of the things that folks have tried to put on the ballot in Florida, ' Hall said, 'and I don't know if I could bring myself to do that – that's a very prohibitive requirement.' Making the fine print larger Many states already prescribe a particular format for initiative petitions. South Dakota's new mandate for specific font sizes was prompted by allegations that some people got duped into signing a petition for abortion rights last year, said sponsoring state Sen. Amber Hulse, a Republican. Printing the ballot title in large type 'might make it harder for some issues to get on the ballot if people know what they're signing. But that's actually a good thing,' Hulse said. More power for elected officials Before they can collect signatures, petition sponsors must get approval from state officials. New measures in several states give those officials greater authority. New Arkansas laws allow the attorney general to reject initiatives written above an eighth-grade reading level or which conflict with the U.S. Constitution or federal law. Utah's lieutenant governor, who already can reject unconstitutional petitions, now also will be able to turn away petitions that are unlikely to provide adequate funding for their proposed laws. A new Missouri law gives greater power to the secretary of state, instead of judges, to rewrite ballot summaries struck down as being insufficient or unfair. A higher threshold for voter approval Most states require only a majority vote to amend their constitutions, though Colorado requires 55% approval and Florida 60%. Republican-led legislatures in North Dakota and South Dakota approved measures this year proposing a 60% public vote to approve future constitutional amendments, and Utah lawmakers backed a 60% threshold for tax measures. All three propositions still must go before voters, where they will need only a majority to pass. Voters rejected similar proposals in Ohio, Arkansas and South Dakota in recent years, but they approved a 60% threshold for tax measures in Arizona. Lawmakers contend the move has merit. 'Raising the threshold can help protect the constitution from being manipulated by special interest groups or out-of-state activists,' North Dakota House Majority Leader Mike Lefor said earlier this year. ___ Associated Press writers Jack Dura and Kate Payne contributed to this report. ___ Payne is a corps member for The Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.
