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“The more people feel disillusioned with the political process, the more I hope they’ll pay attention to ballot measures,” said Kelly Hall, the executive director of the Fairness Project, an organization that supports a handful of ballot initiatives across the country. “It’s a way to move through partisan and political gridlock."

Protect AR Constitution, a ballot measure committee that opposes the initiative, has raised more than $780,000 as of the beginning of November, including $450,000 from the Fairness Project, a nonprofit that helps run progressive ballot measures.

During a year when inflation and the economy are of concern to voters across the U.S., the Proposition 209 is attracting some national attention as a test case for other states, according to the Fairness Project, a national nonprofit that funds, organizes and advocates for ballot measures and is supporting Proposition 209.

"Regardless of where you think the right conventional wisdom is around how candidates should be balancing issues in their own platforms, there is an undeniable energy around voting directly on abortion issues in the states where voters are given that opportunity,” said Kelly Hall, executive director of the Fairness Project.

“There’s a direct connection between voting on a ballot measure and seeing a change in your community in a way that you often don’t get from voting for a candidate,” Kelly Hall, executive director of a progressive national non-profit called the Fairness Project, says.

“We are seeing in real time in 2022 just how ballot measures are peaking voter turnout,” said Kelly Hall, executive director of the Fairness Project, which backs citizen initiatives across the US.