Vox

A battle is underway as ambitious ballot measures compete with proposals to restrict their use. Which side is winning?

“There’s been this vacuum of leadership, and in places where voters can take matters into their own hands, they’re doing it,” said Kelly Hall, executive director of the Fairness Project, which has worked to support minimum wage and Medicaid expansion initiatives across the country.

But the initiative process has also been under attack in Arizona, South Dakota, and elsewhere. Arkansas also voted Tuesday on a ballot initiative that would have set up a new supermajority requirement for future initiatives, though that measure failed with nearly 60 percent of voters opposed. State lawmakers are also considering more bills to constrain future initiatives. In 2017, the Ballot Initiative Strategy Center was tracking fewer than 40 bills that would have changed the ballot initiative process; across 2021 and 2022, they have identified more than 200 bills that would limit or undermine the initiative process.