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BALLOT INITIATIVES ACTIVATE VOTERS, CHANGE THE LANDSCAPE  
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Chris Melody Fields Figueredo
August 26, 2024
Convergence Magazine
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_ Ballot initiatives offer a tool “to not only block authoritarian
rule and ideology, but to build a world where all of us thrive and
live with dignity — the world we deserve.” _

BISC Operations Manager Kalee Whitlock and then-Movement Building
Manager Brad Christian-Sallis canvassing in Omaha, NE in November 2022
for NE Initiative 433, which raised the state minimum wage, Photo by
Kalee Whitlock.

 

Convergence_ is pleased to be collaborating with the __Ballot
Initiative Strategy Center_ [[link removed]]_ on a series of
articles spotlighting progressive initiatives in play this election
season. This is the first article in the series._

As we head into the Fall and the critical final stage of the 2024
election, a large contingent of voters are grappling with feelings of
fear, uncertainty, and disillusionment. While the recent shift in the
presidential race has helped galvanize a new generation of voters and
evoke a sense of hope and excitement, it hasn’t quieted all of the
anxieties that have built up over the last several years.

We are mobilizing people to vote at a time when more than 80% of
adults in the US
[[link removed]] don’t
believe their elected officials care what they think and
alarmingly, roughly one-third of Americans
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an authoritarian leader or military regime would be a good way of
governing. Additionally, we are advocating for popular, life-changing
policies in a landscape where Republicans control the governorship and
both chambers of the state legislature in 23 out of 50 states
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While those conditions are not ideal, ballot initiatives
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activating the electorate. In places where marginalized communities
are centered and grassroots organizations are leading campaigns,
ballot initiatives shift culture and narrative so that we can create
long-term, sustainable progress for our people and our democracy.

_Ballot initiatives are the tool we need in this moment to not only
block authoritarian rule and ideology, but to build a world where all
of us thrive and live with dignity — the world we deserve._

DIRECT DEMOCRACY AND COLLABORATIVE GOVERNANCE

Ballot initiatives were originally popularized
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the US during the Progressive Era of the early 1900s by the labor
movement, populists, and progressive activists who shared the belief
that people needed a tool that would allow them to fight back against
corporate greed and political corruption. From the 1970s to the early
2000s, ballot initiatives were used by conservatives to attack
environmental protections, public education, and the rights of
workers, women, immigrants, and queer people. But in recent history,
voters across the ideological spectrum have harnessed the power of
direct democracy to pass progressive policies such as marriage
equality, raising the minimum wage, expanding healthcare, protecting
reproductive freedom, legalizing marijuana, and so much more.

Voters have the opportunity to keep the momentum going in 2024, as an
exciting range of ballot measures have qualified for statewide ballots
in red, blue, and purple states alike. There are 12 confirmed and
potential reproductive freedom ballot measures in play that
demonstrate the nationwide mobilization in response to the U.S.
Supreme Court’s 2022 _Dobbs v. Jackson _
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repealed _Roe v. Wade_ [[link removed]].
Voters in Alaska, California, Missouri, and Nebraska will have the
opportunity to raise wages, secure paid sick days, or both. Ohioans
could help create fair redistricting maps, and California, Colorado
and Hawaii have measures to proactively enshrine marriage equality in
their state constitutions.⁠ At a time when voters increasingly feel
that unpopular decisions are being made for them, ballot measures like
these give communities a direct say on the issues that matter most in
their day-to-day lives.

Time and time again, ballot measures have proven
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be powerful tools for collaborative governance that transcend party
lines and often receive higher vote percentages than candidates. This
trend started in 2014 when four states, Alaska, Arkansas, Nebraska,
and South Dakota
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raised the minimum wage through ballot measures; another four
states, Arizona, Colorado, Maine, and Washington
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followed suit in 2016. Florida made headlines across the country in
2018 when nearly 65% of Florida voters approved Amendment 4
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restore voting rights to Floridians with past criminal convictions.

In 2020, Missouri and Oklahoma expanded Medicaid to low-income adults,
which has proven
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significantly benefit individuals who gain healthcare coverage as well
as their communities as a whole. Since the overturning of _Roe_,
voters have successfully protected reproductive rights every time the
issue has been placed on the ballot. In Ohio—a state that Trump won
with more than 53%
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2020—hundreds of thousands of voters mobilized in the 2023 elections
to pass Issue 1
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enshrining the right to abortion in the state constitution just months
after they successfully defeated 
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ballot measure that would have blocked that victory. These are just a
few instances that showcase how voters have used the power of direct
democracy to support progressive policies, even in Republican trifecta
states. Ballot measures are bypassing partisan politics and turning
people-power into policies that transcend divides and improve lives.

Make no mistake, these successes are hard-fought and often led by
grassroots groups who know that those in political power in their
states are not representing the needs of their communities.

Creating movement infrastructure

That’s why the Ballot Initiative Strategy Center (BISC)
[[link removed]] was created. BISC ensures that state and
national advocates have the tools and skills they need to harness the
power of ballot measures to make transformational changes in
communities. BISC knows that this vital work does not start or stop
with any single election. In order to build long-term, sustainable,
grassroots power, BISC supports campaigns through every campaign
phase, also known as the 360 Ballot Measure Lifecycle.
[[link removed]] 
[[link removed]]Reimagining
the definition of success is paramount to BISC’s work, which is
focused on helping state leaders build a new way of working together
— one that moves away from the traditional “win at all costs”
mentality and into a space where equity and sustainability are
centered in all aspects of campaign work.

It’s not just _if_ we win, it’s _how_ we win that builds
power, which means BISC helps partners disrupt race, power, and
privilege dynamics engrained in how campaigns are traditionally run.
This way, we can not only achieve success on Election Day — but
continue to build state-based power that centers those who are the
most impacted by systems of oppression. These guiding principles are
at the center of BISC’s work.

We support leaders and partners across the country to pass ballot
measures that work for people of color, LGBTQ+ people, women, and
working families. Yet, as BISC continues to work with partner
organizations to implement these victories and secure future wins,
creating and running ballot measure campaigns has become increasingly
difficult.

Backlash to democracy

Backlash to ballot measures as a form of governance started nearly a
decade ago when ballot measures gained significant momentum as an
avenue for enacting popular policies that fare well with voters across
the political spectrum. Policies that are considered progressive, like
expanding healthcare and raising the minimum wage, began to win at the
ballot — even in deep-red states like Oklahoma, Montana, Missouri,
and South Dakota — and anti-democratic politicians and wealthy
special interest groups responded by coordinating a sophisticated
effort to aggressively target and undermine
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citizen-led initiative process.

These attacks take on a variet [[link removed]]y
of  [[link removed]]forms
[[link removed]]; some aim to subvert the will of
the people by refusing to implement voter-approved initiatives, while
others seek to make it nearly impossible for grassroots groups to
qualify an initiative for the ballot by placing undue legal burdens
and restrictions on the process itself. Ultimately, these attacks all
serve the same function: to undermine the will of the people and
diminish their decision-making power.

This level of resistance to ballot measures is 
[[link removed]]escalating
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When Democrats controlled a majority of state legislatures around the
country, Republican lawmakers and right-wing voters often used direct
democracy to spearhead initiatives like restricting collective
bargaining, enacting voter ID laws that disenfranchise traditionally
excluded groups, restricting the freedom to marry, and rejecting
health insurance mandates.

In recent years, big-moneyed interest groups have tried to use the
ballot measure process for nefarious purposes like undermining
workers’ rights. One such instance played out in California in 2020
when tech giants including Uber and Lyft bankrolled Prop. 22
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workers as independent contractors rather than employees under state
law — repealing state legislation that recognized some gig workers
as employees under state law, giving them access to rights and
protections like overtime pay.

This year in Arizona, the state’s GOP-controlled legislature
referred a discriminatory, anti-immigration ballot measure
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would allow local law enforcement officials to arrest people who they
even _suspect_ may be crossing the border illegally. Although
far-right politicians and corporate interest groups have used ballot
measures to try and advance their own agendas in years past and
present, it hasn’t stopped them from mounting a multi-pronged attack
against the process.

Attacking the ballot initiative system is part of a larger movement
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far-right politicians and corporate interest groups to dismantle
democracy by undermining our elections, usurping the will of the
people, and moving us further toward authoritarianism and minority
rule. Luckily, these efforts have proven to be wildly unpopular with
voters across the political spectrum.

BISC’s recent 11-state survey
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that 92% of voters agree that the ballot initiative process is an
important way for citizens to pass policies they care about, and 93%
of voters agree that legislators have an obligation to carry out the
will of the people.

Another notable finding showed that voters have the highest confidence
in ballot measures as a form of governance. Voters are more confident
in citizen-led policymaking than in other forms of government — with
55% of voters having confidence in ballot initiatives as a lawmaking
method versus 40% having confidence in state Supreme Courts, 39%
having confidence in elected officials or state legislatures, and only
24% having confidence in governors enacting laws. The data paints a
clear picture: voters want to have a direct say in our democracy, and
they don’t want legislators to bypass majority rule.

At a time when voters feel disenfranchised and disconnected from
democracy and our power in it, ballot initiatives give us the
opportunity to directly engage in our democracy and make a tangible
impact in our day-to-day lives. A recent study from _Pew
Research_ found that only 4% 
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U.S. adults say the political system is “working extremely or very
well,” making it all the more important for voters to have a tool
that allows them to take power into their own hands. Direct democracy
is also an important check against lawmakers who, all too often,
don’t feel obligated to listen to their own electorate.

Lead with love

However, ballot measures will only serve as a tool for liberation when
we choose to center love
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the ways we work together. We have a choice to make: we either accept
the conditions as they are — allowing the status quo to develop a
world of dominance and control — or we can make a different choice.
We can come together to design a new world — showcasing what
collective power looks like, feels like, and sounds like. This must be
an act of radical love, not dominance.

Guided by the words of bell hooks: “_Without love, our efforts to
liberate ourselves and our world community from oppression and
exploitation are doomed. Without an ethic of love shaping the
direction of our political vision and our radical aspirations, we are
often seduced, in one way or the other, into continued allegiance to
systems of domination—imperialism, sexism, racism, classism,_”I
issued a call to action to our partners and the larger community: Make
ballot measures love letters to our people.

As you read future installments of this series, we hope you will take
away why ballot initiatives offer us an opportunity to course-correct
the values that rule our democracy—rooted in love and community.

_Chris Melody Fields Figueredo
[[link removed]] has
been BISC’s Executive Director since June 2018, bringing two decades
of experience in advocacy, creating collaborative spaces, and movement
building. She has devoted her career to social justice and ensuring
our democracy works for “We the People.” She is the first queer
woman of color to lead BISC, where she focuses on organizational
vision, strategic planning, and fundraising. She believes ballot
measures can be a tool for liberation, if we use them to build power,
dismantle systems of oppression, and center the communities most
impacted by the change we seek. Chris is Venezuelan-American, raised
in Texas. She lives in Washington, D.C. with her daughter and border
collie. _

Convergence is a magazine for radical insights. We produce articles,
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stories about organizing, and engage in strategic debate — all with
the goal of winning multi-racial democracy and a radically democratic
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* ballot initiatives
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* Grassroots Organizing
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* elections
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* Reproductive rights
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* Minimum Wage
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