The nationwide attack on Black voters

During the 2022 election, one trend was certain: Through ballot measures, voters across the country delivered on critical issues directly affecting our communities. Voters cast ballots in support of reproductive rights, addressing gun violence, the abolition of slavery, increased wages and enhanced voting access — all issues that significantly impact communities of color. 

Now, on the heels of these wins, some state politicians and special interests are looking for ways to undermine the will of the people and disenfranchise communities of color.

In a brazen power grab, these politicians are trying to delay — or completely prevent — the implementation of ballot measures that defined November’s midterm elections, and they are taking steps to restrict the use of ballot measures to preemptively reject or void future policy wins. These attacks on ballot measures have been especially prevalent in places where people of color, and Black voters specifically, have used the power of direct democracy to affect change in their communities. 

Amendment 4 in Florida is a prime example. In 2018, over 64 percent of Floridians passed Amendment 4 by ballot initiative, effectively approving the restoration of voting rights of 1.4 million formerly incarcerated individuals — predominantly Black voters — who finished their terms of sentence, including parole and probation. Despite sweeping approval at the ballot box, the Florida Legislature responded by introducing new legislative hurdles to delay the implementation of Amendment 4. After years of litigation, confusion remains. Florida officials have no central database to determine who is eligible to vote, and “election police” continue to arrest Florida residents previously deemed eligible to vote by the state.  

The racially motivated fallout of Florida’s Amendment 4 is not an isolated incident. In fact, Mississippi, which has the largest Black population of any state in the country, has been a testing ground for restrictions meant to marginalize Black voters and suppress the policy interests of the state’s Black communities. 

Mississippians had their right to direct democracy taken away in May of 2021 when the Supreme Court struck down the state’s ballot initiative process based on a technicality over the number of congressional districts in Mississippi, which changed from five to four following the 2000 Census.

During the 2023 session, the Mississippi House and Senate introduced various versions of legislation to restore the state’s ballot initiative process, but many of these proposals were extremely restrictive and failed to live up to their promise of restoring the original process that was struck down in 2021.

This year, Mississippi legislators moved forward with one bill to restore Mississippi’s ballot initiative process, SCR 533 — an extremist, anti-democracy bill that included restrictions to prohibit voters from introducing any amendments related to abortion or reproductive freedom, as well as prohibit voters from introducing initiatives that “appropriate money from the State Treasury.”

This particularly sweeping restriction would have made it impossible for Mississippi residents to use their voting power to adopt new measures that would appropriate any money from the state, which would most notably prohibit the expansion of Medicaid coverage. Mississippi is one of only 10 states that have yet to adopt Medicaid expansion, which has proven to be a powerful tool for reducing racial inequity in health care, according to research conducted by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities and BMC Public Health. Under SCR 533, lawmakers could also use a simple majority to change or repeal an initiative that was already approved by voters — a clear effort to undermine voters’ power at the ballot box. 

While SCR 533 ultimately failed to pass, the early political momentum behind the legislation still indicates Mississippi legislators’ attempts to curb the power of their constituents. And even though SCR 533 didn’t survive the 2023 legislative session, the Mississippi Legislature pulled all available levers of power to unleash flagrant legislative attacks on the livelihoods of Black Mississippians. HB 1020 and SB 2343 — which both passed through the majority-white State House and Senate and were signed into law by the governor on April 21 — attempt to reimpose Jim Crow-era laws on the majority-Black city of Jackson.

Put simply: Attacks on statewide ballot initiative processes are systemically racist, as it is one of the most powerful tools voters can use to enact policies that often benefit and protect communities of color — like raising the minimum wage, protecting and expanding reproductive freedom, restoring voting rights to people who were formerly incarcerated, abolishing slavery and expanding health care to those who need it the most. The impact of the harmful, anti-democratic legislation introduced this session would fall on the Black community in Jackson and across Mississippi.

Mississippi and Florida are not the only states where elected officials are undermining and manipulating the ballot initiative process.

In 2020, Missouri voters approved a ballot initiative to expand Medicaid — a policy that Missouri’s Republican lawmakers adamantly opposed. In response, Missouri lawmakers tried to subvert the will of the people by reversing course on the policy win altogether. When those efforts failed, they slow-rolled implementation so much so that the federal government intervened. At the time, the applicant backlog was so severe that wait times exceeded 100 days.

Nearly three years later, issues with the program persist. It’s no coincidence that twice as many Black Missourians as white Missourians are covered under Medicaid and that Medicaid expansion is explicitly tied to fostering more racially equitable healthcare systems by helping end the health care coverage gap for people of color, and for Black Americans specifically.

For years Missouri state lawmakers have worked to erode the ballot measure process, and after voters approved Medicaid expansion in 2020, lawmakers doubled down on their efforts. Simultaneously, grassroots advocates are discussing ways to use the ballot measure to raise the minimum wage, guarantee paid sick leave and possibly roll back the state’s abortion ban come 2024 — all policies that would uplift Missouri’s communities of color, particularly Black Missourians who continue to carry the weight of the state’s regressive policies.

Florida, Mississippi and Missouri state legislatures are not standing alone. From Arkansas to North Dakota, and Arizona to Ohio, 42 state legislatures have introduced at least 142 measures during 2023 legislative sessions that would directly affect the laws governing ballot measures — many of which will serve to further stamp out Black voters’ power. It’s no coincidence that two Black lawmakers in Tennessee were recently expelled from their seats after protesting a local mass shooting.

Emboldened attempts to deliberately strip Black communities of representation and power, including through attacks on the ballot initiative process — the people’s tool — must be stopped. Otherwise, these efforts will continue to serve as a blueprint for more coordinated attacks on the livelihood of Black Americans. 

As we move forward, our goal is clear: We must defend democracy by ensuring the will of the people always prevails.

Chris Melody Fields Figueredo is the executive director of the Ballot Initiative Strategy Center. She has devoted her career to social justice and ensuring our democracy works for “We the People.”