Red State AGs Keep Trying to Kill Ballot Measures by a Thousand Cuts

[Hermit-The-Prog]

Red State AGs Keep Trying to Kill Ballot Measures by a Thousand Cuts - Bolts

When a coalition of voting rights activists in Ohio set out last December to introduce a new ballot initiative to expand voting access, they hardly anticipated that the thing to stop them would be a matter of word choice.

But that’s what Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost took issue with when he reviewed the proposal’s summary language and title, then called “Secure and Fair Elections.” Among other issues, Yost said the title “does not fairly or truthfully summarize or describe the actual content of the proposed amendment.”

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These Ohio advocates aren’t alone in their struggle to actually use the levers of direct democracy. Already in 2024, several citizen-led attempts to put issues directly to voters are hitting bureaucratic roadblocks early on in the process at the hands of state officials.

Arkansas organizers have been stonewalled by their attorney general, who has rejected language for ballot proposals to expand medical marijuana and increase government transparency. In Nebraska, a lawmaker behind a law sending more public money to private schools has leaned on the secretary of state to block a ballot referendum attempting to repeal it.

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[Hermit-The-Prog]

1. selfie kick

[senseandsensibility]

2. The struggles of progressives in red states doesn't

get enough attention around here, or anywhere, really. It must be really demoralizing. I admire them just for trying.

[Hermit-The-Prog]

3. It's persistent resistance! Michigan gives me hope for Kentucky.