A sneak attack on democracy
Defending against a growing national trend
Welcome to a Wednesday evening edition of Progress Report.
Let’s start off with some exciting news: The billboard is officially up.
If you’re not sure what I’m talking about, you can refer to a newsletter sent a few weeks ago in which I outlined some of the public gambits that I’ve been working on with friends and colleagues. You can also just wait until tomorrow, when I send out another newsletter with all the delightful details.
In infinitely less thrilling news, the Supreme Court looks poised to all but finish off its dismantling of the Voting Rights Act. Any and all objective observer that watched the oral arguments in Merrill v. Milligan came away thinking that the attorney general of Alabama did a real clunker of a job defending an indefensible racial gerrymander, but that hardly matters.
It’s all shadow theater. The court is filled with right-wing hacks, so it’s looking likely that they’ll uphold the gerrymander and make it even more impossible to stop Jim Crow-era cracking and packing. And as the high court continues this full-frontal assault on popular democracy, further attacks continue to happen at the state and local level, under the radar and with little fanfare.
That’s exactly what’s happening right now out in Arkansas, and in tonight’s edition of the newsletter, we have a reported look at a tense, hard-fought battle over a ballot initiative that will determine the fate of direct democracy. The piece was reported by Jenna Spinelle and stands as an example of the expanded reporting that we’re seeking to do here at Progress Report.
By Jenna Spinelle
The Arkansas state motto is “let the people rule.” Yet, the state’s legislature seems hell-bent making sure its people have as little power as possible.
This November, voters will decide whether to increase the threshold needed to pass a ballot initiative from a simple majority (50% +1 vote) to a supermajority (60% of all votes). The question was referred to the ballot by the state legislature in 2021 and will appear as Issue 2 on this year’s general election ballot.
Arkansas joins Arizona, Missouri, South Dakota and other states where conservative state legislatures are trying to make it more difficult for citizens to pursue political change through ballot initiatives. But it also joins those states in having grassroots groups to push back against these changes and stand up for the rights of everyday people in American democracy.
For AR People formed in 2020 to help expand voting access ahead of that election and push back against efforts to disenfranchise voters. Its first project was to correct more than 300 ballots in Pulaski County, which as home to Little Rock qualifies as the state’s most populous county. That work changed the outcome of municipal elections and gave the group the attention and funding it needed to hire two full-time staff members, Founding Director Gennie Diaz and Content Director Hannah Bruner.
Diaz said the state’s motto is at the core of For AR People’s work.
“Everything we do is pushing for restoring the power back to the people as we actively work against the legislature that tries to siphon away that power,” Diaz said. “AnWe're just like any grassroots nonprofit. I think we're always a little bit tired and hoping to get some kind of lasting funding, but really, I don't think either of us would trade it for the world. It's really fulfilling work, even if it's an uphill battle.”
The Arkansas legislature’s latest effort to siphon power from the public comes in the form of Issue 2, a legislatively-referred ballot question that seeks to increase the vote threshold for passing both citizen-led ballot initiatives. The legislature put the initiative on the ballot, hoping to use the 50%+1 threshold to raise the bar going forward.
Their opposition is both idealogical and political. The ballot initiative has been used to advance progressive policy in the deep-red state, and this fall, the other main ballot initiative will put marijuana legalization up to supportive voters. Arkansas’s political class seems loathe to follow the will of voters on these sorts of topics.
For AR People is part of the coalition Protect Arkansans Rights that’s working to oppose Issue 2, which Diaz describes as the most recent in a string of attempts by the legislature to alter the ballot initiative process.
“In the previous legislative session, they made it where people collecting signatures to get citizen-led ballot initiatives on the ballot that they would no longer be able to pay canvassers per signature. They also added restrictions on if you've had a previous conviction, you can't be employed as a canvasser so they have kind of put together this full barrage of attacks on the legislative process from the people's end.”
Thankfully, these efforts have proven deeply unpopular with voters. Arkansans voted down Issue 3 in 2020, a measure that would have increased signature requirements for ballot initiatives and moved up the deadline for citizens to file initiative petitions with the Secretary of State. Earlier this year, an effort to alter the ballot measure process in South Dakota was rejected by nearly two-thirds of voters in June’s primary election.
For AR People joins groups like Show Me Integrity in Missouri and Reclaim Idaho, both of which were involved in efforts to stop state legislatures from making changes to the ballot initiative.
Diaz is confident that Issue 2 will be defeated in November, but he’s still hedging his bets. Just in case, though, AR People and other grassroots organizations are preparing for the possibility that they face defeat this fall and must mount a citizen-led ballot initiative in 2024 to bring the threshold back a simple majority.
“I don't think that this coalition in particular would give up the fight,” Diaz said. “We fight for expanding access to the democratic process in the legislative process. So we're always going to be pushing for ways to allow more people to participate in an easier manner rather than fewer people in a more restrictive manner.”
The Protect Arkansans Rights coalition held its first media event on September 22. At the event, Josh Price of Arkansas United, an immigrants’ rights advocacy group in the Issue 2 coalition, highlighted how communities of color could benefit from the ballot initiative process.
“And to then increase that threshold by 10%, it makes it more difficult for minority groups to get laws on the ballot that may benefit their communities… So sometimes this pathway of a citizen ballot initiative is the only way that some of our minority communities can get something on the ballot that may benefit their groups,” Price told KUAR public radio.
National groups like the Ballot Initiative Strategy Center and the Fairness Project share Price’s perspective and have stepped in to offer financial support and strategic guidance to people working on the ground to protect direct democracy in states across the country. The Fairness Project’s Ballot Measure Rescue Campaign has pledged $5 million to push back against legislative efforts to make ballot measures inaccessible.
Diaz said For AR People plans to start outreach on Issue 2 via door knocking, phone banking and text message campaigns soon.
“Now that we've launched, we just have to roll up our sleeves and get the work done,” Diaz said. “We've got a robust field plan … to tell people what this is and to be able to answer questions face to face with people. But then we'll also be doing, you know, full-blown flooding of communication everywhere else, too.”
Assuming the plan works and Issue 2 is defeated in November, Diaz said For AR People will get back to its other main activity — holding the state legislature accountable. The group does this through reporting on legislative activity, either in conjunction with local media or on its own. It focuses on simple, actionable steps people can take to influence legislators, like attending committee meetings or calling them on their personal cell phones.
Another big focus will be pushing the state’s new governor, either Republican Sarah Huckabee Sanders or Democrat Chris Jones, to spend the state’s $1.6 billion COVID-19 surplus on increasing teacher base salaries. Not surprisingly, Diaz said most of the pandemic relief money spent so far has gone to tax cuts for the state’s wealthiest residents while its social safety net continues to erode.
“We will continue to push for good policy that we believe impacts the most Arkansans in the best way,” Diaz said. “And so we will do a lot of coverage on that and equipping people and empowering them with action steps to be involved in that process.”
Jenna Spinelle is a writer and podcast producer based in State College, Pennsylvania. She created a podcast series about ballot initiatives called When the People Decide.
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