Welcome to a Thursday night edition of Progress Report.
It’s been six weeks since I underwent my seventh open-heart surgery and the recovery… well, let’s just say it’s been slow but steady enough. My health isn’t that interesting, though, so tonight I’m diving into the world of direct democracy, with some huge updates to some of the hottest policy battles of the fall.
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The the primary elections are finished, the signature deadlines have passed, the lawsuits have been adjudicated, and the ballots are being printed, making it the perfect time to dig into the initiatives and amendments that voters will weigh in on this November…. and the ones they won’t. Oh, also, a few of the initiatives that they already voted on earlier this year.
I’ve spent the last few days cleaning, updating, and adding a ton of new initiatives to my tracker site, OnTheBallot.news. It’s a pretty expansive list of relevant initiatives and amendments, so below I’m highlighting a cross-section of them, with a focus on big and controversial policies, news updates, and favorites that fell short (or were short-circuited by bad judges and elected officials).
I’ll review the statewide initiatives today and then jump into the biggest city and regional initiatives in the next edition of the newsletter this weekend.
Civil Rights, Healthcare, and Kids
With Democrats back in complete control of Richmond, voters in Virginia will finally have a chance to lock in constitutional protections for basic human rights. Consider this an opportunity to almost fully cement the one time-capital of the Confederacy as a blue state, as Virginians look likely to approve the constitutional rights to abortion and same-sex marriage, while also finally restoring voting rights to people after they’ve been released from jail. If only Gov. Abigail Spanberger believed in workers’ right to organize (or even just kept campaign promises!).
Voters in Nevada will also vote to enshrine reproductive rights in the constitution; this one’s a formality, as it’s already passed once and just needs a second go-ahead to comply with the state’s amendment process. So far so good!
Less of a gimme is the reproductive rights amendment in Idaho, which has one of the most stringent anti-choice laws in the country. A citizen-driven initiative, it would, among other things, allow abortion up to fetal viability (and beyond in medical emergencies, as well as codify the right to IVF and contraception.
The wording on this one was subject to a legal dispute, as state Republicans who control the ballot did their best to tilt the scales by including the phrase that voting no would protect “preserve the lives of preborn children.” The state Supreme Court, unfortunately, was fine with that obviously biased language. There is an interesting debate, with unconventional coalitions, happening between doctors, religious organizations, and medical associations going on in what is generally a far-right state.
Legal decisions were a bit more positive in Missouri, where voters will weigh in on abortion rights for the second time in as many general elections. As you may recall, Missourians legalized abortion back in 2024, but a state Republican Party that hates direct democracy is now seeking to undo that decision. So how do they plan to convince people to give away the right that they just granted themselves?
At first, their game plan followed the same conservative electoral formula: stoke unconnected culture wars and tell baldfaced lies. Last year, the Missouri legislature created an anti-abortion amendment that was worded to make voters think that it actually protected abortion rights, but lawmakers were foiled by an appeals court insisted that on a more truthful explanation.
Now, Republicans are hoping that the amendment’s inclusion of a ban on gender-affirming care (which is already banned in Missouri) will be enough to tempt people to throw women under the bus. Ironically, their chances of success are in peril because the hardest of anti-abortion hardliners are threatening to hold out because they don’t think it is punitive enough.
If you want to understand the hypocrisy of modern conservatism, and how that word is really just a neat cover for bigotry, look no further than Washington State, where the right is pushing two seemingly conflicting ballot initiatives intended to immiserate children. One, Initiative 001, would roll back changes to a “parental rights” law that would for some reason delay parents and guardians from learning that their kids were the victims of crimes.
Why? Possibly because it was sloppily written, with its authors attention mostly aimed on the clause that would give parents the right to their kids confidential mental health records — a staple demand of the right-wing anti-trans movement. And lo and behold, one of the other big conservative initiatives in Washington this year is a gender verification process that would ban trans participation in school sports. A problem that nobody faces, of course, but that’s hardly the point. The same thing is happening in Colorado, where conservatives want to force trans kids to participate in sports according to their biological gender from kindergarten up through college (something the NCAA already does, of course) and Nebraska, which is doing the same thing.
Voters in Arizona won’t have the opportunity to rein in the wildly expensive and increasingly politically unpopular school voucher giveaway, which has funded everything from sex toys to trips to Disneyland, due to a technicality ruling by the state supreme court… but voters will get the chance to vote on further policing and humiliating trans kids while they attend the increasingly underfunded public schools.
On the bright side, the anti-trans bigots in Maine failed in their attempt to qualify trans athletes ban initiative due to some blatant irregularities during the petition signature collection process. It was a protracted fight that involved the secretary of state and ultimately went to the Maine Supreme Court, which affirmed that the billionaire-funded campaign had fallen about 500 valid signatures short.
In one of the funnier initiatives on the ballot, voters in Massachusetts will decide whether they want to repeal a bulk of the state’s marijuana regulation laws, which would leave weed legal to possess but end the sale and cultivation of the stuff. It will not surprise you that a recent poll found that a healthy 61% of the voting public opposed the proposal while just 27% are in favor.
But hey, at least the cranks will get a hearing on election day, which is more than some of the state’s affordable housing advocates can say: after coming under fire from most elected Massachusetts Democrats, a ballot initiative that would have established limited rent control in a state where it is currently banned was tossed by the Supreme Court.
Here’s a heartwarming one for you: North Dakota will vote on a constitutional amendment that would require the state to provide free school meals to every child, from kindergarten through 12th grade. According to a recent poll commissioned by the Food Research and Action Center, 79% of the public supports free meals in schools. Admittedly, FRAC convenes a coalition that advocates for that exact policy outcome, but nearly 80% is a pretty enormous margin.
Democracy, Ballot Initiatives, and Big Money
Down in South Dakota, voters will have a very different choice in front of them: Amendment L would increase the margin to pass future constitutional amendments to 60%, which would make it almost impossible for citizens to use the direct democracy process for anything substantial.
It’d be an unfortunate turn of events, especially in a state where progressive policies have no real other avenue for passage, but there’s hope: in Missouri this summer, voters overwhelmingly rejected Amendment 4, which would have throttled the initiative process by requiring a referendum to pass in every Congressional district to become law. Overwhelming might actually be an understatement, because more than 80% of voters said no to amendment, even though it was cynically paired with a ban on foreign money in elections (which, naturally, already exists).
As I’ve been closely documenting for months, Missourians will in November get the opportunity to protect their democracy. Thanks to both the state and US Supreme Courts (shocker, I know), voters will decide whether to authorize the blatantly gerrymandered Congressional map that Republicans tried to shove down their throats this year.
They’ll also have the chance to vanquish future attempts to throttle their initiative process: Amendment 6, put forth by the Respect Missouri Voters coalition, would safeguard direct democracy by requiring a whopping 80% of both chambers of the legislature to approve of any changes to approved ballot initiatives, then survive a statewide voter referendum. It’s noteworthy that the amendment is only on the ballot due to the intervention of the Missouri Supreme Court, which was a huge bulwark against GOP treachery this year.
Alas, the Nebraska State Supreme Court had far less interest in respecting voters, as it tossed a similar amendment from the Respect Nebraska Voters under the auspices of the oft-abused single subject requirement. This is particularly galling because the Nebraska legislature very recently rolled back most of the voter-approved minimum wage and paid sick leave initiative.
On the other hand, very good things are happening in Montana! There are three amendments this year that would dramatically bolster the state’s democracy and protect the will of voters, starting with an amendment that would add the right to ballot initiatives to the state constitution. They’ll also get to weigh in on ensuring that judicial elections remain non-partisan (this is how courts stay moderate in red states).
The most monumental proposal in Montana, however, wouldn’t just protect the decent status quo. Instead, I-194 would trigger a major sea change in American politics by banning corporations from spending money on political campaigns. to do so, the Montana Plan, as its called by advocates, would pull an end-around on the Citizens United decision by distinguishing between human and “artificial” persons — ie corporations, unions — and banning the latter from spending on elections. I’ll have more on this in future issues, but needless to say, it would be huge.
Michigan will also vote on limiting corporate money in elections, though Prop 2 would be more narrowly tailored to limit contributions from state-regulated utility companies, government contractors with more than $250,000 in state contracts, and the executives associated with them. Still, not bad!
As for the nuts and bolts of elections, there’s plenty on the docket. Alaska will once again force voters to consider repealing the state’s top four ranked choice voting law (Republicans hate it, as it’s allowed Democrats and independents to create a real coalition that more regularly wins elections). In Massachusetts, they’ll have a chance to create a top-two nonpartisan primary system like the messy one they have in California, as well as finally enact same-day voter registration.
I’ll have more in the next edition of the newsletter, which will feature additional statewide initiatives and a deep dive into city and county ones.
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Great job! Thank you for this important roundup of political policy battles.