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RandySF's JournalIndivisible Arkansas garners 1,800 signatures on ballot initiatives for November election
The Little Rock chapter of activist group Indivisible helped gather more than 1,800 signatures for five Arkansas voter initiatives last month and plans another signing event this weekend.
The ballot initiatives include proposed amendments to the Arkansas Constitution on abortion, education, the public’s right to information and expanded access to medical marijuana. Two other citizen-initiated proposals would amend the state’s Freedom of Information Act and eliminate the sales tax on feminine hygiene products.
Constitutional amendments need a total of 90,704 signatures to qualify for the ballot. Initiated acts require 72,563 signatures and must be collected from at least 50 of the 75 Arkansas counties according to Act 236. The groups sponsoring the ballot initiatives have until July 5 to collect the requisite signatures. If the measures meet the requirements, they will appear on the Nov. 5 ballot.
Indivisible Little Rock and Central Arkansas board member Alison Guthrie said each proposed measure is about providing access to things people need.
“Whether that’s education or sterile products or essential healthcare, to being able to find out what our government officials and entities are doing,” she said. “These are about access for the public and for people who need it the most.”
https://arkansasadvocate.com/2024/05/02/indivisible-arkansas-garners-1800-signatures-on-ballot-initiatives-for-november-election/
Anti-abortion groups say more aggressive approach necessary to stop Missouri amendment
Wednesday’s Midwest March for Life at the Missouri Capitol had a different tone this year. It was about fighting.
Nearly two years ago, the crowd celebrated Missouri becoming the first state to ban abortion after Roe V. Wade was overturned. But on Wednesday, a new worry loomed over the annual event: Abortion could soon be enshrined in the Missouri Constitution.
“If God doesn’t intervene in this process,” Paul Shipman, with the Christian radio program Bott Radio Network, said at a rally on the statehouse steps Wednesday, “it just kind of shows you the direction where the nation is going and the direction where the state of Missouri is going.”
After recent losses in states like Kansas and Ohio, anti-abortion activists say they must take a more aggressive approach in Missouri, using a low-budget grassroots strategy to convince Missourians not to sign the initiative petition that would put a constitutional right to an abortion in the hands of voters.
https://missouriindependent.com/2024/05/02/missouri-abortion-amendment-march-life/
Louisiana Lawmakers Move to Criminalize Possession of Abortion Pills
LOUISIANA LAWMAKERS ARE trying to quietly criminalize possession of the most commonly used abortion pills.
In a move that took the state’s abortion advocates and OB-GYNs by surprise, last-minute amendments that would place mifepristone and misoprostol on the state’s list of controlled substances were added to a bill focused on making “coerced criminal abortion by means of fraud” a crime.
State Sen. Thomas Pressly (R) filed Senate Bill 276 in honor of his sister, whose husband slipped abortion medication in her drink without her consent. The House Criminal Justice Committee heard multiple bills regarding abortion Tuesday, and there was not much buzz surrounding this particular one, until Pressly submitted the set of amendments that would classify the abortion medications mifepristone and misoprostol as Schedule IV controlled substances under Louisiana law.
Abortion is almost completely illegal in Louisiana. Mifepristone and misoprostol both have other uses.
https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-features/louisiana-criminalize-possession-abortion-pills-1235013039/
Some North Carolina abortion pill restrictions are unlawful, federal judge says
RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — Some of North Carolina government’s restrictions on dispensing abortion pills, such as requiring that doctors to prescribe and provide the drug to the patient in person, are unlawful because they frustrate the goal of Congress to use federal regulators to ensure the drug is distributed safely, a judge ruled on Tuesday.
U.S. District Judge Catherine Eagles in Greensboro granted a partial victory to a physician who performs abortions and who last year sued state and local prosecutors and state health and medical officials on state medication abortion regulations beyond those addressed by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
Other restrictions on the drug mifepristone that were challenged, however, such as requiring an in-person consultation 72 hours in advance, an in-person examination and an ultrasound before prescribing, are not preempted and can remain, Eagles wrote. That is because they have not been expressly reviewed and rejected by the FDA, or because they focus more on the practice of medicine or on general patient health, she added.
Yet some “statutory requirements of the state’s Abortion Laws stand as obstacles to Congress’ clear and manifest purpose of providing a comprehensive regulatory framework for safe use and distribution of higher-risk drugs run by the FDA,” wrote Eagles, a court nominee of President Barack Obama. She asked the parties to propose written judgments and injunctions for the case within a few weeks.
https://apnews.com/article/north-carolina-abortion-pill-lawsuit-559245aea81889300f897b6a532b16ce
Ohio Republican pitches $15 minimum wage bill to fend off ballot issue
A Republican lawmaker is introducing a bill to raise Ohio's minimum wage to $15 an hour ? an attempt to fend off a November ballot issue.
Sen. Bill Blessing, R-Colerain Township, has proposed raising Ohio's minimum wage to $15 an hour by Jan. 1, 2028. But tipped workers would increase to $7.50 an hour, not $15 ? a key difference between his proposal and one from Raise the Wage Ohio, which is collecting signatures to put a constitutional amendment on the November ballot.
Blessing knows voters will almost certainly approve a $15-an-hour minimum wage if it's on the November ballot, but he thinks his approach is better for workers and employers. Blessing called the ballot language "a very blunt instrument to accomplish what they are trying to accomplish."
Senate Minority Leader Nickie Antonio, D-Lakewood, said Democrats have been the ones leading the charge on raising the minimum wage, so she's interested in having a conversation about helping struggling workers. Still, everyone should be wary of last-minute efforts from Republicans trying to sidestep ballot issues, she said.
https://www.dispatch.com/story/news/politics/2024/05/01/ohio-republican-pitches-15-minimum-wage-to-fend-off-ballot-issue/73515398007/
IL: House Democrats advance November ballot questions aimed at driving party turnout
SPRINGFIELD — Illinois House Democrats approved legislation Wednesday aimed at boosting turnout by party faithful in the Nov. 5 election by offering voters nonbinding advisory questions on securing in vitro fertilization, protecting election workers and targeting those earning $1 million a year or more with higher taxes to pay for property tax relief.
The comprehensive measure, which now moves to the Senate, also would afford some incumbent protection for legislators in November by preventing political party committees from appointing challengers to fill out legislative ballots if the party didn’t field a candidate in the March primary.
The referenda package was approved without debate on a 67-4 House vote, with nearly 40 Republicans voting “present.”
Ballot propositions to promote voter turnout is a tactic that has been used nationwide, particularly in presidential election years. Around this country, this year’s focus has been on state constitutional amendments securing abortion rights following the U.S. Supreme Court’s reversal of Roe v. Wade that returned the issue of legality of the procedure to the individual states.
https://www.chicagotribune.com/2024/05/01/house-democrats-advance-november-ballot-questions-aimed-at-driving-party-turnout/
Arkansas Press Association forms ballot committee to campaign for initiatives to strengthen state's Freedom of Informati
The Arkansas Press Association has filed paperwork to form a group to campaign for two ballot initiatives to strengthen the state's Freedom of Information Act, it announced Wednesday in a news release.
The group, called Arkansans for a Free Press, will be the second ballot question committee to support passage of the Arkansas Government Disclosure constitutional amendment and initiated act.
"I am honored to serve as chair of this committee of longtime supporters and friends of the Arkansas journalism community," Maurice "Buddy" King, chairman of Arkansas for a Free Press, said in a statement. "While some of us have very different political views, this is not a political campaign. FOIA is non-partisan by nature and should be important to every citizen of Arkansas. It is a tool that has to be in place to sustain community journalism and democracy."
Ashley Kemp Wimberley, executive director of the Arkansas Press Association, said the new ballot question committee was created so it could have more of a say in the campaign for the amendment and act.
https://www.nwaonline.com/news/2024/may/01/arkansas-press-association-forms-ballot-committee/?news
Campaign to raise Missouri's minimum wage to $15 an hour confident it will get on the ballot
Missouri voters on Wednesday got a step closer to getting to decide whether to raise the state's minimum wage to $15 an hour, after a group behind the effort said it turned in nearly double the required number of signatures.
The ballot measure backed by Missouri Jobs with Justice would raise the minimum wage from its current $12.30 an hour to $13.75 an hour next year and then to $15 an hour in 2026.
Citizen-driven amendments to Missouri law require more than 100,000 voter signatures to get on the ballot, and Missouri Jobs with Justice said it submitted about 210,000. Republican Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft's office must next determine if at least 115,000 or so are valid.
“We feel confident that voters will have an opportunity to pass this important initiative this fall," Caitlyn Adams, executive director of Missouri Jobs with Justice Voter Action, said in a statement.
https://www.msn.com/en-gb/money/other/campaign-to-raise-missouri-s-minimum-wage-to-15-an-hour-confident-it-will-get-on-the-ballot/ar-AA1o0kdB?apiversion=v2&noservercache=1&domshim=1&renderwebcomponents=1&wcseo=1&batchservertelemetry=1&noservertelemetry=1
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