Progressive activists in conservative states have advanced their causes in recent years by placing initiatives and referenda on the ballot, circumventing Republican-controlled legislatures by appealing directly to voters.
Now, Republican lawmakers want to make those ballot initiative campaigns substantially more expensive.
Lawmakers in dozens of states have introduced more than 100 bills this year to add new restrictions or increase requirements on initiative campaigns. The bills vary widely: Some would increase the threshold a ballot measure must achieve to win passage, others would set new spending restrictions on supporters.
But the common thread through most measures is an increased financial burden on initiative petitioners.
“You’re seeing efforts to weaken the ballot measure process to allow people to take on corporate interests,” said Chris Melody Fields Figueredo, executive director of the Ballot Initiative Strategy Center, a progressive group that supports liberal ballot initiative campaigns. Changes to initiative processes “can ultimately have a huge impact on the cost of signature gathering.”
The Arkansas House this week approved a bill requiring voters to read the full ballot title before signing, or have it read to them; canvassers collecting signatures would be guilty of a misdemeanor if they accept a signature from someone who has not read the full title. The House approved a different bill to disqualify signatures if the secretary of state determines they were collected in violation of state law.
A Florida House subcommittee approved legislation requiring ballot petitioners to lay aside a $1 million bond before they can begin collecting signatures. Utah Gov. Spencer Cox (R) is considering legislation that would require initiative backers to purchase advertisements publishing the text of proposed initiatives in newspapers, adding up to $1.4 million in costs.
In Oklahoma, lawmakers are considering a bill to limit the number of signatures initiative proponents can collect from any one county — a proposal intended to limit the number of signatures that can come from the state’s urban cores of Oklahoma City and Tulsa.
Supporters of the proposals say they are meant to reduce confusion among voters, or to limit the influence of liberal activists from out of state who can use the ballot process to alter state law.
Arkansas Sen. Kim Hammer (R), the sponsor of his state’s twin bills and four others that have already passed targeting ballot initiatives, said he introduced the legislation after reports that some voters who signed an initiative protecting abortion rights were misled by signature gatherers.
“People thought they were, and being told that they were signing a petition for one thing when in reality it was misleading in order to get their signature,” Hammer told colleagues on the Senate floor. “The bill requires a reading to make sure they know what they are signing.”
But opponents, Democratic members of deeply red legislatures, said the measures amounted to an attack on constitutional rights to place proposals on the ballot. In Arkansas, where the state constitution guarantees the right to pursue ballot measures, Hammer’s legislation would be akin to requiring someone to read terms and conditions before making a simple purchase, said Sen. Clarke Tucker (D).
“Who reads every word of the terms and conditions every time you check that box?” Tucker asked colleagues. “We are crushing the ability of people to gather signatures to put issues on the ballot.”
Tucker said reading the full ballot titles of recently passed initiatives, which are required to include every aspect of a proposed initiative, would take an average of eight minutes. Voters signing a petition typically do so in a few seconds.
Ballot initiatives and referenda have been a part of America’s political scene since the founding, when Thomas Jefferson proposed allowing referenda in Virginia’s state constitution. That proposal failed, but Georgia delegates added the right to petition for ballot measures to their state constitution the following year.
South Dakota, Utah and Oregon allowed citizens to pursue initiatives in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Many Western states used ballot measures to curb the influence of robber barons and timber barons who had bought favors in state legislatures in the early 20th century. Today, the initiative process is allowed in 24 states.
Progressives have used ballot measures in conservative states in recent years to increase the minimum wage and protect abortion rights. Conservatives have used ballot measures in liberal states to cut taxes and increase criminal penalties, in defiance of Democratic legislatures.
Proponents of the initiative process say the heightened restrictions will put the cost of mounting a campaign out of reach for grassroots activists. They say the proposed rule changes are political power grabs aimed at stifling public debate.
“We look at attacks to the ballot measure process as another example of the rise of authoritarianism and consolidation of power,” Fields Figueredo said in an interview. “In a time where we need tools to address corporate takeover of our governing authorities, we are met with the same efforts to undermine the will of the people and actually make sure we have a voice in governing power.”