In the News

“They are saying: ‘We know that voters disagree with us on this issue, and rather than us changing how we govern to be more in line with the people who we are elected to represent, we are going to change the rules of governance itself to make sure that we don’t have to listen to our constituents.’"

Kelly Hall, the executive director of the Fairness Project, which advances progressive ballot measures, told me, “We will make sure that the voters of Ohio understand the implications, not just for the abortion issue that is coming in November but all of the other issues that Ohio voters will want to vote on in the future.”

Putting up barriers to voting is bad enough, suggested Kelly Hall, executive director of the Fairness Project, a progressive group. “Now it’s, ‘How can we restrict the power of those... who actually do make it to the voting booth? ‘“

That “threw fuel on the fire when it comes to efforts to restrict ballot measures,” Hannah Ledford, deputy executive director and campaigns director of the ballot measure group Fairness Project, said in an email. Every state that put abortion on the ballot in 2022 voted in favor of protecting access to the procedure in some way, including Republic

Kelly Hall, executive director of The Fairness Project, said the 2022 victories for abortion rights advocates are a motivating factor for GOP state lawmakers to push the changes to the ballot-measure process. "Lawmakers who are elected to represent the people are clear they don't want the people's view to be expressed in law," she said.

“It’s important to situate the attacks on the ballot measure process as part of the broader set of attacks on voting rights and democracy writ large,” said Kelly Hall, executive director of the Fairness Project

Fairness Project executive director Kelly Hall said in a statement that Republicans are “threatened by the idea of voters being able to make progress without permission from the legislature.”

The Ohio back-and-forth comes amid similar Republican efforts to restrict direct democracy in Missouri, North Dakota and Mississippi, according to Fairness Project, a Washington-based group that pushes ballot measures across the U.S.