Follow the latest news coverage and media releases from the Fairness Project as we work to win and protect ballot measures across the country.
“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."
In a major win for democracy and reproductive rights, voters in Ohio have rejected a proposal from right-wing politicians and special interests to make citizen-led ballot measures more difficult to pass.
“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.
The Ohioans United for Reproductive Rights coalition submitted nearly half a million valid signatures to set up the showdown this fall over abortion rights and other forms of reproductive freedom — more than 80,000 more than were needed to qualify.
Today, the Fairness Project released its report, The Direct Democracy and Voting Rights Crisis, providing an overview of a decade-long effort to attack state-level ballot measures and citizen-led initiatives with the goal of consolidating power in the hands of extreme state legislators.
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.”
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