When Citizens Push Back: The Battle Over Ballot Initiatives in Conservative States
You might not hear much about it on your daily news scroll, but across the U.S., there’s a heated tug-of-war happening between everyday voters and state lawmakers — especially in conservative-led states. It’s a showdown over ballot initiatives, the process where citizens gather signatures to put laws directly to voters, bypassing legislatures. Sounds pretty democratic, right? But lately, Republican-controlled legislatures have been fighting hard to clamp down on this kind of grassroots power.
Take Missouri, for example. Back in 2018, Toni Easter, a retired fashion industry exec turned activist, threw a backyard party in St. Louis to rally support for a redistricting reform ballot initiative. The cause? Fairer voting districts and stronger voter representation. The initiative gained momentum, but then Republican lawmakers swooped in with a competing measure — and the original got overturned. It was a big hit for Easter and her group, Respect Missouri Voters.
Fast forward to last year, Easter was back in action, collecting signatures for a successful ballot initiative that enshrined abortion rights into Missouri’s state constitution. It was a major win for progressive voters in a deeply conservative state. But that victory was short-lived. This year, the Republican-led legislature approved a new referendum aiming to undo that very measure. “Our civil rights are being taken away,” Easter says passionately, frustrated but undeterred. Now, her group is gearing up to launch yet another ballot initiative in 2026 — this one to prevent lawmakers from overturning citizen-approved initiatives altogether.
What’s Driving the Crackdown on Ballot Initiatives?
This isn’t just happening in Missouri. Across the country, Republican lawmakers are cracking down on citizen-led ballot initiatives — especially those pushing progressive policies like abortion rights or healthcare expansions. Why? Because they see these grassroots wins as a threat to their control.
In fact, since the 2022 Supreme Court ruling in Dobbs that ended federally guaranteed abortion rights, 11 states have passed abortion protections through ballot initiatives — often bypassing legislatures that refuse to act. It’s a clear sign that voters in these states want policies that reflect their views, even when their elected officials don’t.
But as Chris Melody Fields Figueredo, executive director of the Ballot Initiative Strategy Center, puts it, “State lawmakers have been using their power to subvert the will of the people. They can’t win fairly, so they’ve been rewriting the rules, no matter what the majority wants.”
The Conservative Argument: Protecting Democracy or Blocking the People?
From the other side, conservative lawmakers say these ballot initiatives are being hijacked by out-of-state money and special interests pouring cash into rewriting state constitutions irresponsibly. They worry that the initiative process is vulnerable to fraud because many petitions are gathered by paid canvassers who sometimes collect signatures without fully informing signers.
South Dakota State Senator John Hughes, a Republican, argues this point bluntly. He sponsored a resolution to raise the threshold for passing ballot measures to 60% — instead of just a simple majority — because he believes “our constitution is easy prey.” If voters approve the change, South Dakota would join a small but growing number of states with supermajority requirements, including Florida.
The Growing Trend: States Making It Harder to Pass Initiatives
Nearly half of U.S. states allow citizen initiatives, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. But the fight over these tools has intensified. The Ballot Initiative Strategy Center tallied 148 bills introduced in 2025 aiming to restrict ballot measures, almost double the 76 bills in 2023.
Here’s a snapshot of some recent moves by Republican-led states:
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Arkansas: Requires petition collectors to check photo IDs from signers. The state’s Attorney General can also reject proposed ballot initiatives if the language is deemed too complicated (above an eighth-grade reading level). This power has already been used to disqualify several measures.
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Florida: Limits who can gather signatures and bars organizations from sponsoring more than one initiative at a time. Plus, voters must provide identifying info like the last four digits of their Social Security number when signing petitions.
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Montana: Paid signature collectors must wear badges disclosing their paid status and home state.
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Oklahoma: Caps signatures from big counties, allowing no more than 10% of signatures to come from counties with populations over 400,000. Supporters say it balances rural and urban influence, critics say it effectively blocks ballot initiatives since cities have most voters.
Why Does This Matter?
Because the stakes are huge. Ballot initiatives have passed critical policies in states where legislatures refused to act, including Medicaid expansions, minimum wage hikes, paid sick leave, and abortion protections.
In Missouri’s 2025 legislative session, for instance, the Republican-controlled legislature didn’t just target abortion rights. They also overturned a voter-approved measure guaranteeing paid sick leave and cost-of-living increases for the minimum wage. These moves sparked outrage from grassroots groups and activists.
Senator Adam Schnelting, who authored Missouri’s new abortion referendum, claimed proponents of the 2024 abortion-rights initiative “misled Missourians” by suggesting women would die without access to abortion. His new proposal would ban most abortions after 12 weeks, allowing exceptions only for medical emergencies, fetal anomalies, rape, and incest. It’s a stark rollback from the previous voter-approved right to abortion until fetal viability (about 22-24 weeks).
Grassroots Resistance and What’s Next
But progressive activists aren’t backing down. Groups like Respect Missouri Voters are organizing volunteers, aiming to raise $300,000 and recruit 2,500 people this month alone to get a new initiative on the ballot in 2026. Their goal? To lock lawmakers out of overturning citizen initiatives and “reclaim their power,” as Easter says.
The battle over ballot initiatives is shaping up as a defining fight for democracy at the state level — a test of whether voters or elected officials ultimately decide the future.
Quick Highlights & Takeaways:
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Since 2022, 11 states have approved abortion protections via ballot initiatives after the federal right was struck down.
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Republican-controlled legislatures are pushing higher vote thresholds, signature restrictions, and stricter ID rules to block citizen initiatives.
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South Dakota, Florida, North Dakota, and Utah are among states considering or enacting 60% supermajority requirements.
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Ballot initiatives remain a critical tool for voters to enact policies ignored by conservative legislatures.
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Progressive groups are mobilizing aggressively to fight back, raising funds and volunteers to protect these democratic processes.
In a nutshell, the fight over ballot initiatives reflects a broader clash over power, democracy, and who gets to decide the laws that govern us. As the political landscape shifts, the eyes of many are turning to statehouses and ballot boxes, where the real grassroots battles are playing out.
If you’re interested in democracy in action, keep an eye on these battles — because they’re about much more than just laws; they’re about the voice of the people and the future of how America governs itself.
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