Will of the people doesn't always get the final say
By Anne Whitesell / For The Conversation
Less than half of Americans trust elected officials to act in the public’s interest.
When voters want something done on an issue and their elected officials fail to act, they may turn to citizen initiatives to pursue their goals instead. The citizen initiative process varies by state, but in general, citizens collect signatures to have an issue put directly on the ballot for the voters to voice their preferences. Nearly half the states, 24 of them, including Washington state, allow citizen initiatives.
These measures, also called “ballot initiatives,” often focus on the controversial issues of the day. Citizen initiatives on same-sex marriage and marijuana legalization have been on many state ballots through the years. Abortion rights have repeatedly been on the ballot since 2022, after the Supreme Court overturned the constitutional protection for abortion, and more voters can expect to vote on the issue in 2024.
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Yet it is becoming increasingly common for lawmakers across the country to not only ignore the will of the people, but also actively work against it. From 2010 to 2015, about 21 percent of citizen initiatives were altered by lawmakers after they passed. From 2016 to 2018, lawmakers altered nearly 36 percent of passed citizen initiatives.
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