Jeremy Kohler reports for Pro Publica on efforts by Republican policymakers in Republican states to undermine the will of their constituents and the democratic process. They are creating obstacles to policy initiatives that their constituents lead and vote for.
One citizen initiative in Missouri made abortion in Missouri legal, reversing the state’s anti-abortion law. Another initiative mandated that employers had to offer workers sick leave. Republicans are working to undo these new laws.
In Alaska and Nebraska, citizen-led initiatives to provide sick leave benefits that became law in 2024 are also under attack. And, in Arizona, Republican lawmakers want abortion restrictions that their constituents voted against in 2024.
In 10 states, Republican lawmakers are trying to block citizen-led voter initiatives. In North and South Dakota, Florida, Arizona, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Ohio, Utah and Montana, legislatures are restricting these citizen initiatives or working to do so, so that their constituents cannot change laws.
How do the Republican policymakers justify their anti-democratic reforms? They criticize citizen initiatives as subject to fraud and funded by outside special interest groups. (Of course, the Republican policymakers all take campaign money from outside funders.) They claim that they speak for their constituents better than their constituents speak for themselves.
How are states blocking citizen-led voter initiatives? People leading citizen initiatives might be required to explain how the policy they want will be paid for and to pay to publish the ballot language in state media outlets, which can add more than $1 million to their costs. And, some states now require 60 percent supermajorities to pass initiatives. Or, states forbid the courts from interfering with legislative policies.
Some say that these Republican efforts to undermine the democratic process are linked to a rise of authoritarianism in the US. When voters in Kansas City, Missouri voted to approve Medicaid expansion, Republicans refused to fund it. The courts required them to fund it. Now voters in Missouri are pushing a ballot initiative that would prevent their state legislature from reversing ballot initiatives that voters support or keeping constituents from using ballot initiatives to express their will.
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