In the 2024 election, advocates placed several hot-button initiatives on state ballots, with varied results. Abortion rights initiatives passed in conservative states like Missouri, Montana, and elsewhere, while similar initiatives failed in Florida, South Dakota, and Nebraska. In Ohio, an initiative that would have ended partisan gerrymandering failed, though similar initiatives have passed in previous elections in Arizona, Michigan, and California.
While numerous factors drove these divergent outcomes — Florida’s constitution requires a supermajority of 60 percent to approve any amendment, for example — state courts played a key role as well. Initiatives fared better in states like Missouri and Montana, where courts intervened to protect voters from state-sponsored disinformation, than in Florida and Ohio, where courts refused to do so.
In Missouri, once a citizen initiative has been approved for the ballot, the secretary of state drafts a description to appear alongside it. Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft, an avowed abortion opponent, drafted an inflammatory and negative description for that state’s abortion rights initiative. The secretary’s description falsely stated that the initiative would allow “dangerous, unregulated, and unrestricted abortions, from conception to live birth, without requiring a medical license or potentially being subject to medical malpractice.” Supporters of the initiative sued.
