Once Again, Politicians Are Choosing Their Voters. It’s Time for Voters To Choose Back.

Maresa Strano wrote for The Fulcrum on the importance of citizen-led ballot initiatives in fight against democratic backsliding.

If party leaders insist on running from competition, then it’s time for voters to run toward it. And in many states, the best tool available to do that is the citizen-led ballot initiative—a way for ordinary people to demand fair representation when legislators won’t deliver it.

Ballot initiatives allow voters to bypass gridlocked and unresponsive legislatures and change the rules of the game directly. In states that allow them, citizens have enacted reforms that legislators refused to touch: Michigan’s citizen-led independent redistricting commission cleaned up partisan gerrymandering; Maine’s switch to ranked-choice voting elevated and protected moderates like Rep. Jared Golden and Sen. Susan Collins; Arizona’s public campaign financing system increased competitiveness. These reforms didn’t come from the top down; they were bottom-up demands for a democracy that works.