This week, The New Yorker spotlighted how advocates for direct democracy, including the Fairness Project, are fighting back against to right-wing attacks on the ballot measure process in Ohio in advance of a proposed reproductive rights amendment this fall.
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.”
The resolution in Ohio is the latest in a string of attacks on the ballot measure process. Last year, legislators in South Dakota and Arkansas attempted to implement a 60% threshold but it was rejected by voters.
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.”
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