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Arizona, Arkansas and Nebraska face deadlines for signatures in July, according to the Fairness Project, a ballot initiative-focused group that has been assisting volunteers with financial and organizational resources in Arizona, Florida, Montana and Missouri. The Project also worked on the successful ballot initiatives in Michigan and Ohio.

Kelly Hall, the executive director of The Fairness Project, one of the national groups backing the CI-128 campaign, said the opposition tactics playing out in Montana are “nearly identical” to those happening in other states considering reproductive rights initiatives, such as Arizona and Missouri.

“This milestone for the Missourians for Constitutional Freedom campaign means that voters are one step closer to being able to use the ballot measure process to secure their rights this November, and we are excited to be standing with them in that fight,” Kelly Hall, executive director of the Fairness Project, said.

Kelly Hall, executive director of The Fairness Project, said Missouri is “a poster child for what can be achieved through direct democracy” with proper investment. The Fairness Project supports progressive ballot measure campaigns around the country, including current efforts to put abortion on the ballot in Missouri, Arizona, Florida and Montana.

Kelly Hall, executive director of the Fairness Project, which has backed various abortion rights ballot initiatives across the country over the past few years, welcomed the successful signature collection campaign in Missouri on Friday.

PPAMT is one of the main organizations backing Montanans Securing Reproductive Rights, the committee sponsoring Constitutional Initiative 128. Other partners include the ACLU of Montana, Forward Montana and the Fairness Project.

“They are coming up with new tricks,” Kelly Hall said of the Missouri proposals, a trend she attributes to voters rejecting straightforward attempts to raise the ballot initiative vote threshold from a majority to 60 percent in Arkansas, Ohio and South Dakota over the last two years. “There’s a new creativity that we’re seeing."

Ballot supporters here raised $4.2 million as of March 12, according to campaign finance records. Money has come from national groups including the American Civil Liberties Union and the Fairness Project, which has supported ballot efforts on various progressive causes. Kansas City-based Health Forward Foundation has also donated.