In the News

Kelly Hall — the executive director of the Fairness Project, a group that works to pass economic and social justice policies through ballot measures — said she's seen more state bills to limit citizen-initiated ballot measures this year than ever before.

That information is not required in other states, said Kelly Hall, executive director of the Fairness Project, a progressive group that has backed dozens of ballot initiatives in states. Hall said people concerned about privacy might hesitate to sign petitions.

“It’s too simplistic to say everyone is sitting it out, but we need to have strong cases for what’s effective and that’s a reasonable request to have,” [Kelly Hall] said. “These things are resource-intensive, and the stakes are high and the impact of winning is high.”

“This is an unprecedented number of serious pieces of legislation moving forward quickly,” to make it harder to put an initiative on the ballot, said Kelly Hall, executive director of the Fairness Project, which advocates for ballot measures across policy areas.

“Legislators cannot change that law without going back to voters for a whole other campaign to change the constitution,” said Kelly Hall, the executive director of the Fairness Project, a nonprofit that helped put the constitutional amendments on the ballot in all three states.

Expanding Medicaid in red states has built political salience for the program and made it more difficult for Republican lawmakers to cut it, said Kelly Hall, executive director of the Fairness Project, which helped launch the Medicaid expansion ballot initiative campaigns.

“The places that have expanded Medicaid are at real risk of losing their rural hospital infrastructure if the program is rolled back, and that is not just devastating to people who are beneficiaries of the Medicaid program, but anyone who lives in those communities, regardless of their type of insurance,” said Kelly Hall of the Fairness Project.

“Ballot measures have been a lifeline to working people in red and purple states, allowing them to make change even when politicians fail to represent their interests. Legislators are trying to systematically take that power away,” Kelly Hall, of the Fairness Project, a nonprofit organization that helps advance citizen-led ballot initiatives, said.