How Politicians are Attacking Direct Democracy
Corrupt politicians and the special interest groups that back them don’t like it when their power is threatened or when citizens can band together to affect change on their own. That’s why they’re attacking the ballot initiative process
Politicians are attacking the ‘direct democracy’ ballot initiative process
When politicians fail to act, voters can turn to one of the purest forms of American democracy to get things done: a ballot initiative.
The rules and processes vary from state to state and city to city, but for the most part the ballot initiative process looks like:
- A group of citizens come together around a common cause and decide to take matters into their own hands.
- The citizens navigate the legal and procedural hoops to vet their proposed law
- They collect a designated number of signatures from other voters in the community
- If all the requirements are met, their proposed law becomes a question on the ballot
- Voters themselves get to decide whether or not the proposed law gets implemented
That’s as direct as democracy gets.
Ballot initiatives sound very democratic and very American. Why would politicians try to dismantle this process?
In the United States, there are 26 states that have a ballot initiative process or veto referendum process. In these states, citizens routinely exercise their rights to advance causes and improve their lives, bypassing their legislators altogether.
The fact that the ballot initiative process is so successful at legislating when politicians fail to do so is the reason why the process is under attack. Establishment politicians (and the special interests backing them) don’t like it when their power is threatened.
When politicians fail to act, voters can turn to one of the purest forms of American democracy to get things done: a ballot initiative.
So what are they doing?
All across the country, state politicians are introducing and passing laws to gum up the ballot initiative process and make them harder to pass. By doing things like raising the voting threshold (%) needed for an initiative to pass from simple-majorities of 50% plus one vote to supermajorities (like 60% or more) or by making it harder to collect signatures, politicians’ ultimate goal is to take away voters’ rights.
In the last five years alone, politicians in 11 states have proposed at least 64 bills that would make it much harder for voters to pass ballot initiatives.
How do we defend the ballot initiative process?
If we want to crack down on corruption in government, end partisan gerrymandering, and fix our broken political system, we can’t wait on Congress–we have to follow a strategy of passing laws city by city, state by state.
Since 2012, we’ve scored 197 wins all across the country supporting citizen-led ballot initiatives to pass policies that fix our broken political system.
See our wins »
Ballot initiatives are a critical part of that strategy, which is why we closely monitor legislation across the country that threatens these initiatives. We then mobilize our resources and volunteers to ensure these measures do not pass.
But we can’t do it alone.
You Can Make A Difference
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