In the News

“We’ve never seen this amount of spending or attention on an issue related to ballot measure processes and I can tell you it’s not because everyone inherently cares about what the rules are on ballot issues,” said Kelly Hall, executive director of the Fairness Project.

“It was about a direct connection with the abortion issue for many voters,” said Kelly Hall, the executive director of the Fairness Project, one of the leaders of the Ohio campaign against the proposal. “But there were many others who saw it as a power grab by some legislators."

“I think we have seen a pretty steady drumbeat of these attacks coming for ballot measures,” said Kelly Hall, executive director of the Fairness Project, which funds and organizes liberal state ballot measure efforts across the country.

The proposed amendment “is not about creating consensus”, argues Kelly Hall of the Fairness Project, a national non-profit group that supports liberal ballot initiatives and is campaigning against Ohio’s proposed change. Rather, “it’s a power grab by the legislature to make sure that more decisions remain in their hands.”

“We’ve been seeing an acceleration of these attacks on ballot measure processes more every year for the past several years,” said Kelly Hall, executive director of the Fairness Project, which works to pass progressive ballot measures.

An analysis released by the Fairness Project, an advocacy group that supports progressive citizen-sponsored ballot measures, argues that “direct democracy is facing a coordinated attack from extremist politicians who are either unresponsive to or intent on silencing the voices of their constituents.”

“It’s certainly a pattern,” Ledford said. “I fully expect additional attacks on the ballot measure process to continue, and we will be fighting these fights next month and beyond.”

"There is a lot of fantastic round-the-clock cycle after cycle organizing that works in these states to pass ballot measures instead of having that infrastructure built behind any party apparatus."