There can be other hurdles, particularly if public officials who are players in the process oppose an initiative. SO IT’S A MATTER OF GETTING ENOUGH VALID SIGNATURES IN THE RIGHT PLACES? The Ballot Initiative Strategy Center, which advises progressive groups on campaigning for ballot questions, advises that the work should take three years, including building community relationships before even circulating signatures. “From start to finish, if you could get it done in nine months, you’d really be moving fast,” said Amber England, a political strategist in Oklahoma who has worked to get questions on the ballot in recent years. In Missouri, initiatives can take a year to get to the ballot, and in Oklahoma, the average length has been more than a year - 64 weeks - over the past 10 years, according to the secretary of state’s office. A voter initiative there must gather nearly 88,000 signatures from at least 5% of the registered voters in 38 of its 93 counties, something known as the “two-fifths rule.” In Nebraska, abortion opponents are focused on gaining one more seat in its one-house Legislature for the two-thirds majority necessary to overcome filibusters and pass an abortion ban. Some states set requirements to get signatures from across the state, not just in one or two metropolitan areas. They have to circulate petitions and collect tens of thousands of signatures from registered voters the number is often a percentage of the vote in a previous election. IN STATES ALLOWING IT, WHAT DOES IT TAKE FOR VOTERS TO GET A QUESTION ON THE BALLOT? The Montana referendum also was initiated by legislators. In Michigan, abortion rights advocates believe they have turned in enough signatures to put an abortion rights amendment to the state constitution on the November ballot, but the signatures must still be counted. Legislators in California and Vermont put measures to protect abortion rights on the ballot, and Kentucky lawmakers have a measure on the ballot similar to the one that failed in Kansas. The outcome also suggested that a sizeable number of Republicans voted against the proposed amendment. At least 28% of registered unaffiliated voters, who couldn’t vote on anything else on ballots on Tuesday, voted on the proposed amendment. More than half of registered Democrats and Republicans cast ballots. Over the previous 10 years, turnout for a mid-term primary has averaged less than 26%, with Republicans casting twice as many ballots as Democrats.īut turnout for this election topped 45% - almost 915,000 voters - approaching levels normally seen during a fall election for governor. The election in Kansas coincided with the state’s primary. In Kentucky, donations to the abortion rights cause poured in immediately, said Tamarra Wieder, state director for Planned Parenthood Alliance Advocates. Officials with several national abortion rights groups argued that the vote shows it’s a mistake for Democrats in red states like Kansas to avoid talking about abortion and that support for abortion rights can drive voters to the polls. They took the outcome as confirmation that preserving access to abortion is popular. HOW WAS THE OUTCOME OF THE KANSAS VOTE A SURPRISE?Ībortion rights supporters prevailed by nearly 18 percentage points in the Republican state with deep ties to the anti-abortion movement. That would have opened the door for the GOP-controlled Legislature to further restrict or ban abortion and nullify a 2019 decision by the Kansas Supreme Court that access is a “fundamental” right under the state’s Bill of Rights. Voters rejected a proposed amendment to the Kansas Constitution declaring that it grants no right to abortion. Wade in late June, and it upended political assumptions. The Kansas vote was the first test of public feeling about abortion rights since the U.S. No other abortion initiatives are likely to make a state’s November ballot. Opponents argue federal law already offers those protections. in the November election.įour other states - California, Kentucky, Michigan and Vermont - could have votes in November on abortion access, and a fifth, Montana, is voting on a measure that would require abortion providers to give lifesaving treatment to a fetus that is born alive after a botched abortion. (AP) - Abortion opponents were shocked and abortion rights advocates energized by a decisive statewide vote in heavily Republican Kansas this week in favor of protecting abortion access, yet it’s not likely to translate into new abortion votes across the U.S. Battle for Bikini Bottom ( Rehydrated).