Washington, DC – Powerful state legislators escalated their efforts to dismantle the ballot measure process in 2025 by 95%, according to a landmark new report from national ballot measure leader the Fairness Project.
The report tracks nearly 150 bills that were introduced in statehouses this year that aim to make ballot measures less accessible and harder to pass, thereby restricting voters’ power to create legislative change and weakening a core tool of direct democracy. By contrast, just 76 bills to restrict or undermine the ballot initiative process were put forth during the 2023 legislative session. In total, fewer than 400 such bills were introduced nationwide in the nearly one quarter century from 2000 to 2023.
The latest brazen attack on the ballot measure process occurred just before the Labor Day holiday, with Missouri Governor Mike Kehoe’s announcement of a special legislative session. While the session was announced to take up the matter of mid-decade congressional redistricting, that is only part of the Governor’s anti-democratic agenda. Legislators will also be asked to take up proposed restrictions to citizen-initiated ballot measures in a further attempt to undermine the democratic process and silence the will of the voters.
“While citizens are rightfully focused on the horror unfolding in Washington, extremist politicians are taking advantage of the moment and attacking the most powerful tools voters have at their disposal to make their voices heard,” said Kelly Hall, Executive Director of the Fairness Project. “The erosion of our democracy isn’t just happening in the Oval Office; it’s happening in our home states when politicians attack the ballot measure process and replace the will of the voters with their own political agendas.”
The success of progressive ballot initiatives in the 2024 election, including wins on reproductive freedom, housing, minimum wage, and more, is now sparking an anti-democratic backlash among many state legislators. In state after state, politicians are introducing a growing number of bills crafted to undermine the ballot measure process altogether to prevent citizens from initiating reforms in the future.
Legislative attacks on direct democracy take many forms, but all have the effect of diminishing voters’ power. “Over time,” the report details, “these attacks have grown in number and sophistication, with lawmakers taking a ‘death by a thousand cuts’ approach — introducing small, incremental changes that collectively make the ballot initiative process nearly unusable, while aiming to avoid public attention and media scrutiny.”
Efforts to weaken the ballot measure process range from new requirements designed to deter citizens from initiating new ballot measures in the future to artificial hurdles that make successful passage of a ballot measure nearly impossible for citizen-initiated campaigns. Among the most insidious tactics are proposed supermajority requirements, like the one in Florida that dashed citizens’ hopes of overturning the state’s abortion ban despite winning a majority of the vote in 2024. Imposing the requirement that 60% or more voters must approve a measure will both drive up costs for citizen-initiated ballot measure campaigns and undermine the democratic process itself by allowing a minority to prevail in future elections when the majority falls short of 60%.
“When politicians interfere at every stage of the process, they turn citizen-led campaigns into obstacle courses designed to hinder participation,” Hall said in summation. She continued, “this isn’t reform; it’s a calculated effort to strip voters of their constitutional right to shape policy.”
Other tactics focus on increasing costs for citizens leading ballot measure campaigns, needlessly complicating the efforts, and imposing draconian criminal penalties for minor clerical errors. Like the famous cases of reactionary politicians undermining voting rights by decrying imagined problems like “voter fraud,” these anti-democratic tactics are presented as ways to repair flaws in the democratic process when they in fact create new problems all their own. From banning out-of-state signature collectors to micromanaging how canvassers on ballot measure campaigns are paid, these tactics all share the goal of creating a chilling effect and preventing citizen-initiated campaigns from ever getting off the ground.
Assessing the situation, Hall was measured but emphatic, stating, “every voter should be alarmed that politicians are systematically taking away our rights to make change through the ballot.” She concluded, “this isn’t a time to back down – in fact, these cowardly attacks only underscore the urgent need to defend ballot measures and, by extension, defend our democracy.”