States look to rein in ballot initiatives with more ballot initiatives

You're reading Route Fifty's State and Local Roundup. To get the week’s news to use from around the country, you can subscribe here to get this update in your inbox every Saturday. In the meantime, be sure to read to the end as we've rounded up headlines from the week.

There's a growing effort in states to make it harder for citizens to put proposals on the ballot and pass them by popular vote. 

This coming November, Arizona and North Dakota voters will get a chance to make it harder for future ballot measures to pass. The measure proposed by Arizona lawmakers would require organizers for both initiatives and constitutional amendments to gather a minimum number of signatures in every legislative district. North Dakota’s effort would impose a single-subject requirement on initiatives, raise the number of signatures needed for constitutional amendments, and require proposed amendments to pass in both a primary and general election.

Missouri could soon join Arizona and North Dakota, as Republicans in the state push for higher thresholds for initiatives and constitutional amendments. Senate Democrats have so far filibustered the plan, which would require proposals to pass both statewide and in at least five of the state’s eight congressional districts. But Republicans could again pick up their push for the changes when they return to Jefferson City following a celebration of the Kansas City Chiefs’ Super Bowl victory and a statewide Republican meeting.

Missouri Republicans have made the higher thresholds a major priority this year, as abortion rights advocates are trying to put a question on the November ballot about whether to restore abortion rights in the state. Although Missouri is solidly conservative, voters in recent years have undermined Republican officials by approving a Medicaid expansion and legalizing marijuana.

Advocates fear that efforts to block ballot measures are on their way in more states. The Ballot Initiative Strategy Center says it is tracking 43 measures in 15 states this year that would impose more restrictions on ballot measures. The vast majority of those have been proposed by state lawmakers, rather than the public.

Out-of-power Democrats and liberal organizers have successfully appealed directly to voters in recent years to expand Medicaid, preserve abortion rights, raise minimum wages and, in North Dakota’s case, impose term limits on lawmakers. Of course, Republican officials have tried to block those types of campaigns by making it harder to get issues on the ballot and, in many cases, ignoring or undermining the initiatives after they pass.

Chris Melody Fields Figueredo, the executive director of the Ballot Initiative Strategy Center, a progressive group, worries about the “chilling effect” that the procedural fights are having on grassroots campaigns. Not only are the rules getting tougher to comply with, but challenges are becoming more frequent at every stage of the process, from summarizing the initiatives to validating signatures to generating turnout for inconveniently timed elections.

“In 2022, we had more legislatively referred ballot measures than citizen-led ballot measures,” she said. “The tool was literally created to give citizens an ability to pass policy. That’s why one of the themes for 2024 is not ceding any more ground. We’ve already lost so much in the democratic process, including ballot measures, so we can’t cede any more.”

The Brennan Center for Justice, a left-leaning organization, has also warned that state officials are increasingly trying to thwart ballot measures in places that have long embraced them. (About half of the states allow residents to propose their own laws through ballot measures.)

“State officials’ efforts to thwart citizen initiatives do not take shape in isolation,” the Brennan Center researchers wrote. “They are part of a larger antidemocracy blueprint—yet another example of state officials trying to manipulate the rules of elections and obstruct the will of voters.”

Over the last five years, they said, lawmakers have increasingly adopted several tactics to raise the bar on ballot measures, including adding more stringent signature requirements, raising the threshold necessary for ballot measures to pass, increasing fees to file initiatives or imposing single-subject rules.

As a product of the Progressive Era a century ago, citizen initiatives are often described as a way to bypass the politics and politicians at the state capitol to get popular policies enacted.

In practice, though, ballot measures have become inexorably linked with greater political forces. Republicans famously pushed measures to ban same-sex marriages in 2004 to gin up turnout that would support the reelection bid of President George W. Bush. Democrats learned that lesson and countered it with questions about raising the minimum wage.

More recently, Michigan Democrats took control of the state legislature in 2022 in the same election that voters decided to enshrine abortion rights in the state constitution.

Last year, Ohio Republicans tried to thwart a similar ballot measure on abortion rights from becoming law. They scheduled a special election ahead of the abortion rights question, in which they asked voters to approve a higher threshold for citizen initiatives to pass. But the heightened requirements lost handily, and the abortion rights measure passed in November. Now, organizers are hoping to change the way that legislative districts are drawn through a proposed amendment in November, which could jeopardize or at least weaken the Republicans’ control of the legislature.

Figueredo said those kinds of efforts show the importance of making sure citizens can organize their own initiatives. “Ballot measures,” she said, “are a real battleground for election policy and our democracy.”

Keep reading as there’s more news to use below, and if you don’t already and would prefer to get this roundup in your inbox, you can subscribe to this newsletter here. We’ll see you next week.

News to Use

Trends, Common Challenges, Cool Ideas, FYIs and Notable Events

• CYBERSECURITY: Cyberattack shuts down Colorado public defender’s office. A cyberattack on the Office of the Colorado State Public Defender forced the agency to shut down its computer network, locking public defenders across the state out of critical work systems and prompting attorneys to seek delays in their court cases. Office spokesman James Karbach confirmed the breach in a statement Monday, but did not say how long the public defender’s office expects to be shut down or when the attack happened. Internal emails reviewed by The Denver Post indicate the statewide office is effectively nonoperational and the outage could last as long as a week. Meanwhile, Colorado public defenders do not have access to their work computers, are unable to access court dockets or court filings and can’t do any significant work for clients in court, according to emails sent to the office’s staff.


• SUMMER MEALS: Reversing course, Nebraska governor says state will take federal funding to feed children. Gov. Jim Pillen made an about-face on Monday and announced that Nebraska will accept roughly $18 million in federal funding to help feed hungry children over the summer break. Pillen said in December that the state would reject the funding, defending his position by stating, “I don’t believe in welfare.” But he came under intense pressure, including from some members of his party, to accept the money. The new federal program will give needy families $40 a month for each child who's eligible while the school is not in session to buy food at grocery stores, farmer's markets or other approved outlets. It's called Summer EBT, for Electronic Benefits Transfer, because the money is electronically loaded onto cards like debit cards. Nebraska was one of 15 states—all with Republican governors—that opted out of receiving the funding this year. Crystal Fitzsimons, director of child nutrition programs for the Food Research and Action Center, an advocacy group that works to reduce poverty-related hunger, said on PBS NewsHour that some states opted out of the program because they “just needed a little more time. States have to provide 50% of the admin costs. So it's taking states a little bit more time to figure out where that money is coming from. But we are hopeful that, by 2025, all the states will be in the program.”


• TRANSIT: Power outage snarls morning commutes on all three Boston rail lines. Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority commuters ran into major delays Thursday morning after the green, orange and blue lines shut down because a power cable “failed” and electricity was cut to signals and station lighting across all three lines, the head of the transit agency said. Subway service stopped for more than two hours during peak morning commuting times, leaving those who rely on three-fourths of the MBTA subway system without an easy way to travel. And what was initially described as a failure that happened outside of the agency’s control later turned out to have occurred within the MBTA’s own infrastructure. A substation lost power because one 30-year-old cable “failed,” which in turn tripped circuit breakers affecting the three lines. The mishap is the latest in a yearslong series of service and safety disruptions that are plaguing the system.


• IMMIGRATION: Texas, feds face off in court over law making illegal border crossing a state crime. Lawyers for the Biden administration and state of Texas clashed in a federal court in Austin on Thursday to argue whether a new state law that would allow police to arrest people suspected of crossing the Texas-Mexico border illegally should go into effect next month. The bill, which Gov. Greg Abbott signed in December, is Texas’ latest attempt to try to deter people from crossing the Rio Grande after several years of historic numbers of migrants arriving at the border. The law makes illegally crossing the border a Class B misdemeanor carrying a punishment of up to six months in jail. It also requires state judges to order migrants returned to Mexico if they are convicted. Attorneys representing the U.S. Department of Justice and several nonprofit organizations that have sued the state argued that only the federal government can enforce immigration laws. They said that precedent set by federal courts makes clear that states are prohibited from enacting their own restrictions on entry to and removal from the U.S.


• GAMBLING ADDICTION: Half of sports bets in Connecticut are made by problem gamblers. As America placed bets on the Super Bowl last weekend, Connecticut quietly released research that concluded problem gamblers are responsible for half of all sports betting in the state yet account for not quite 2% of residents. The first gambling impact study since Connecticut legalized sports betting and online casino gaming in 2021 found that two-thirds of residents gamble, though only 10% bet on sports or play online games. More broadly, the researchers found that nearly 71% of all legal gambling revenue in the state comes from the fewer than 7% of residents who are problem (1.8%) or at-risk gamblers (4.9%). Experts expected Americans to bet a record $23 billion on the big game. States, Route Fifty’s Daniel C. Vock recently reported, have fueled a massive uptick in online and in-person wagering on sporting contests, even though they have received relatively modest revenue increases and have seen dramatic increases in reports of people struggling with gambling addiction.


• GUNS: New Mexico legislature approves waiting period for firearm sales. Both chambers of the New Mexico Legislature have voted in favor of a seven-day waiting period for all gun sales. Largely approved along party lines, proponents point to mass shootings in the U.S. committed with guns bought a week earlier, and say waiting periods have been shown to reduce gun homicides and suicides. Opponents, meanwhile, argued a waiting period to buy a gun is effectively a ban. They said guns allow more vulnerable individuals to defend themselves, people will get guns some other way without waiting, and the proposal won’t actually decrease the number of suicides. If the governor signs the bill into law, it would be the 12th state and Washington, D.C., with waiting periods ranging from three to 14 days. Meanwhile, the Georgia House and Senate are advancing similar proposals that would grant a tax break on firearm safes, trigger locks and other safety devices as incentives for secure storage. Last week, the state Senate passed a measure creating a five-day tax holiday on guns and related items.


•  WATER: Indiana rolls back wetland projections. Millions of acres of wetlands across the country lost protections that existed under the Clean Water Act after a U.S. Supreme Court ruling last year left it up to states to decide the extent of wetlands protection. Now fears that the ruling would create a patchwork of state protections, threatening water quality in both the Great Lakes and Mississippi River watersheds, is becoming a reality with a new bill fast-tracked through the Indiana Legislature and signed into law Monday by Indiana Gov. Eric Holcomb, a Republican. The bill will roll back protections for many of Indiana’s most regulated wetlands, making the permitting process easier for developers to build on them. The state's building industry has been leading the charge to strip wetland safeguards, arguing such regulations create roadblocks to meeting Indiana’s housing needs. But environmental advocates warn that these changes could have impacts far beyond Indiana.


• DIVERSITY: Wisconsin Legislature OKs bill guaranteeing admission to state universities for top high schoolers. The University of Wisconsin-Madison would be required to admit all high school students who finish in the top 5% of their class, and other campuses would have to admit those in the top 10%, under a bill passed Tuesday by the state legislature. The measure is part of a deal reached between the legislature and university in December that also limits diversity positions at the system’s two dozen campuses in exchange for money to cover staff raises and construction projects. It now heads to Gov. Tony Evers for his consideration. Maryland and other states are considering similar proposals. The efforts come after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled last summer that affirmative action in college admission processes violated the equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment. The court’s decision effectively ended consideration of race as a part of the higher education selection process. Many of these bills mirror a law in Texas, which went into effect more than 20 years ago. States are considering the guaranteed admission program, not only to diversify its student body, but to keep afloat enrollment at state universities, which shrunk during the pandemic.


• PLASTIC BAGS: How California’s war on plastic bag use backfired. It was a decade ago when California became the first state in the nation to ban single-use plastic bags, ushering in a wave of anti-plastic legislation from coast to coast. But in the years after California seemingly kicked its plastic grocery sack habit, material recovery facilities and environmental activists noticed a peculiar trend: Plastic bag waste by weight was increasing to unprecedented levels. According to a report by the consumer advocacy group CALPIRG, 157,385 tons of plastic bag waste was discarded in California the year the law was passed. By 2022, however, the tonnage of discarded plastic bags had skyrocketed to 231,072—a 47% jump. The problem, it turns out, was a section of the law that allowed grocery stores and large retailers to charge a dime for reusable, heavier-weight plastic bags that ended up being thrown away. Now, California legislators are hoping to correct that error by passing a law that closes that loophole and bans those thick plastic bags offered at the checkout line.


• FLAGS: Effort to overturn new Utah flag moves from legislature to courtroom. A legislative committee was not in the mood to give opponents of Utah’s new state flag another lifeline in their continuing quixotic quest to overturn the adoption of the new banner on Thursday. As a last resort, they’re turning to federal court. After more than an hour of debate and public comment, the House Economic Development and Workforce Services committee punted on a bill aimed at restoring the traditional historical state flag as the only official flag, nixing the modern redesign adopted by the legislature last year. While the bill is not officially dead for this session, it is in legislative hospice. Opponents have struggled mightily to get the public to care about which flag happens to fly as Utah’s sigil. After a failed referendum to overturn the legislature’s decision, they’ve forged ahead with a ballot initiative, which organizers have acknowledged will fail to get the signatures needed. Unwilling to concede defeat, the initiative organizers filed a lawsuit in federal court that claimed Utah’s laws governing signature gathering for ballot initiatives were too restrictive and violated the U.S. and Utah State Constitutions. They’re requesting an extension to the signature gathering deadline until July 8.


• INFRASTRUCTURE: NYC plans 6 new waterfront shipping hubs to replace trucks. New York City officials plan to turn six waterfront locations into maritime shipping hubs as a way to handle the booming number of e-commerce deliveries across the five boroughs. Details of the initiative were published late last week through a request for proposals by the city’s Economic Development Corporation. It marks the latest step in Mayor Eric Adams’ “Blue Highways” plan to shift more of the city’s freight off the streets and onto the rivers and harbors. The request seeks an engineering firm to design barge landings and access points where e-bikes and small delivery vehicles can transport cargo for the “last mile” of its journey. The mayor has proposed several approaches for dealing with the booming number of online deliveries. During his State of the City address last month, Adams proposed a new “Department of Sustainable Delivery” that would manage the tens of thousands of trucks, vans, e-bikes and mopeds that deliver packages and food across the five boroughs.


• PUBLIC SAFETY: Chicago mayor faces pressure to renew controversial ShotSpotter contract. A review by the Cook County state’s attorney’s office has found that ShotSpotter, the controversial gunshot-detection system used by the Chicago Police Department, is “an expensive tool” that’s had a minimal effect on prosecuting gun violence cases. With Mayor Brandon Johnson on the clock to decide whether to renew the ShotSpotter deal he once vowed to end, an internal document obtained by the Chicago Sun-Times underscores previous criticism that the technology is ineffective and overly costly. “ShotSpotter is not making a significant impact on shooting incidents,” the state’s attorney’s office review states, noting that the technology led to arrests in just 1% of more than 12,000 incidents over a roughly five-year span. Based on the city’s roughly $49 million contract with ShotSpotter, the cost per each arrest was valued at $14,837.96, with the value increasing for more serious arrests and convictions. Each conviction in the most serious cases cost $714,736.83, the review shows.

Picture of the Week

Lawmakers are in a race to claim the shaka as Hawaii’s official state gesture. They are considering a bill that would codify the symbol’s ties to the islands. Historians trace the most well-known origin story back to 1912. A sugar mill worker used to wave with only his pinky and thumb after losing his three right middle fingers in an industrial accident. Movie director Steve Sue, who created a documentary on the shaka sign’s roots, testified at a House meeting Wednesday in support of the effort. “If California lays claim to it first because they’re hanging loose, easygoing. Not good for us, right? Not good for the meaning of the shaka, not good for the Aloha meaning of it. Texas might use it as the Longhorns. I know in Utah, BYU uses that for the Y. There are many uses of this type of similar gesture.”

What They’re Saying

“When they stay home sitting on their coach with their nasty cat blanket, diddling on their laptop, if they do that for a few months, you become a loser. We're not losers are we?”

—Mayor Jacob Frey made the comment to a crowd at the Minneapolis Downtown Council annual meeting last week. It made it onto social media, where many people responded negatively. Frey has since clarified that the comment was "a joke," explaining that the people who were in the room took it as one, as he intended. "When it gets taken out of context in a social media post, things can run wild," he said. Frey explained that his joke actually centered around a fictional study, referencing nonexistent people and "coming to a conclusion that I think we can all agree would be ridiculous that no study would ever come to." After the comment, Frey went on to say his responsibility is to bring more people to live, play and work in downtown Minneapolis. He highlighted the good points of downtown during his address, including the growth in housing units, along with the influx of people attending theater, concerts and restaurants. Several businesses have seen an uptick in employees coming back to work in offices downtown. About 65% of downtown workers are coming to the office at least once a week, which is up from 62% a year ago.