A left-leaning advocacy group called the Fairness Project has created a playbook for using ballot initiatives to go around GOP-led state legislatures. Since 2016, it has backed successful initiatives to raise the minimum wage and expand Medicaid.
Oklahoma Legislature Attacks Citizens’ Right To Initiate Ballot Measures, Targeting Urban Voters
“SB 1027 explicitly diminishes the voices of urban voters. It’s cowardly, antidemocratic, and an insult to the general principles of one person, one vote, that has guided American elections since the civil rights movement. All voters, regardless of ideology or address, should have their voices heard equally,” said Kelly Hall
Defying Will of Missouri Voters, Politicians Force a Vote to Ban Abortion
“What we’re seeing today is nothing more than a flagrant power grab by out of touch politicians who have taken it upon themselves to supplant the will of the voters with their own unpopular political agenda,” said Kelly Hall, Executive Director of the Fairness Project, the largest funder of abortion rights ballot measures in 2024.
NPR: GOP-led states are passing new restrictions for voters to get issues on the ballot
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.
The Associated Press: Lawmakers seek to rein in citizen ballot initiatives with new requirements for petitions
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.
The 19th: Missouri’s voters restored abortion rights. Their leaders are trying to overrule them.
“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.”
Gov. Desantis Places Nation’s Most Severe Restrictions on Florida Ballot Measure Process
"Floridians have a constitutional right to change policy themselves. State legislators have now effectively silenced their constituents, all in order to maintain their chokehold on policy making,” said Kelly Hall, Executive Director of the Fairness Project.
Bloomberg: Sick Leave Wins at Risk as States Mull Ballot Initiative Limits
“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.
Stateline: States that enshrined Medicaid expansion in their constitutions could be in a bind
“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.