(C) Common Dreams
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The Direct Democracy and Voting Rights Crisis [1]
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Date: 2023-09
Part One: Rapidly Accelerated Attacks on Direct Democracy
Direct democracy is facing a coordinated attack from extremist politicians who are either unresponsive to or intent on silencing the voices of their constituents. These attacks have multiplied and become more nuanced and sophisticated over time, with reactionary lawmakers favoring a “death by a thousand cuts” approach to undermining the initiative process.
Ohio recently took center stage in the initiative process debate, with a special election on August 8th on a question to raise the threshold for passing ballot measures. Ohio voters rejected a proposal, Issue 1, to raise the bar from a simple majority to a 60% supermajority to successfully pass initiatives — a change that would allow a minority of 41% of voters to dictate policy choices. Special interests and politicians, including Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose, are so committed to denying voters their say on issues like abortion rights that they reinstated the use of special elections after having previously abolished them due to high costs to taxpayers and low voter turnout. Their admitted aim was to thwart a reproductive rights amendment which is expected to appear on the November ballot.
The proposed Ohio amendment would also have required initiative petitions for future amendments to be signed by at least 5% of the electorate in each of Ohio’s 88 counties, rather than in 44 counties, a preview of other tactics lawmakers have used to undermine direct democracy.
While the aftermath of the U.S. Supreme Court’s Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization decision has put renewed focus on the ballot measure process as a battleground for reproductive freedom, the Fairness Project’s Ballot Measure Rescue Campaign has tracked how these attacks on citizen-led ballot measures have percolated for years and has organized to fight back. Efforts to restrict direct democracy in Ohio represent the latest tactics in the extremist and reactionary playbook conservative politicians are using across the country.
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[1] Url:
https://thefairnessproject.org/report-the-direct-democracy-and-voting-rights-crisis/
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