In the News

Our interviews touch on the various processes per state on jumpstarting a ballot measure, what the journeys look like for getting them on the ballot, direct democracy, petitioning, and so much more. Basically, welcome to ballot measure 101.

Kelly Hall, executive director of the Fairness Project, told More Perfect Union that the Medicaid expansion push in South Dakota represents the “broadest coalition that we’ve had in any of these campaigns that we’ve worked on,” adding that it includes “a lot of people who are Republicans.”

Kelly Hall, executive director of the Fairness Project, a progressive group that helps organize ballot measures, said the increasing polarization of state and federal politics is leaving voters with no other options to get their voices heard.

"Kansans' victory this week over extremist state legislators showed us plainly: Ballot measures are the next frontier for protecting access to abortion care," said Kelly Hall, executive director of the Fairness Project.

The Fairness Project also works with ballot initiative organizers across the country — Jenna Spinelle talked with Kelly about some of the issues they’re working on right now and some of the issues that could be heading to state and municipal ballots in the coming years.

“Ballot initiatives are a phenomenally powerful tool when there’s a disconnect between the popularity of an issue and what’s being enacted by politicians. And every poll in the country shows that disconnect when it comes to abortion rights,” said Fairness Project Executive Director Kelly Hall.

If abortion rights can win on the ballot in Kansas, “it is advocacy inspiring,” Kelly Hall says. “I hope that it is also politically inspiring for folks to not run away from this issue, no matter what corner of the country they’re in.”

“Now that abortion is no longer a federally guaranteed right, ballot measures will continue to be essential in the fight ahead,” said Kelly Hall, executive director of the Fairness Project, which is supporting citizen-initiated ballot measures to defend reproductive rights across the country in the wake of the Supreme Court’s decision in June.