November Hot Sheet: Missouri + Nebraska Advocates Fighting to Defend Direct Democracy
Welcome back to The Hot Sheet!
Here, we give you a quick rundown of what you need to know about the 2025 ballot measure landscape — the trends, analysis, highlights of what’s on the ballot, and why it all matters.
For more in-depth analysis, our latest voter attitudes research, and information on the measures we’re tracking, head to our Ballot Measure Hub.
2025 Ballot Measure Landscape
On November 4, voters approved 23 measures across California, Colorado, Maine, New York, Texas, and Washington. Voters in Maine rejected one measure. Six measures had already appeared on statewide ballots this spring in Louisiana, Ohio, and Wisconsin.
As of October 31, BISC is monitoring 22 active bills across six states and Washington D.C. related to direct democracy — at least nine of which seek to limit the People’s Tool. 53 bills have passed in state houses and three others have been vetoed by governors.
The Toplines
- Some state officials are using the courts to slow or even block citizen-led ballot initiative campaigns.
- Maine’s Question 1 was the only ballot measure nationwide to be rejected by voters on November 4. The initiative would have required voters to present certain photo ID when casting a ballot, and severely restricted the state’s popular and secure absentee voting system.
- A second Maine ballot measure was approved to allow courts to grant extreme risk protection orders.
- Voters in Colorado passed a pair of legislatively-referred measures to fund and expand the state’s free school meals program.
- A new constitutional amendment in Texas could make it more difficult for civil rights groups to advocate for the state’s youth.
Emerging Trend
State Officials Using Legal Tactics to Stall the Initiative Process: Legal battles are nothing new for ballot initiative campaigns, but they’ve earned more than a few headlines in recent months.
Take for example the proposed referendum to repeal Missouri’s new gerrymandered redistricting map, which is already at the center of two legal battles just weeks after the campaign kicked off. People Not Politicians Missouri has been left with little choice but to sue Secretary of State Denny Hoskins over his refusal to count many of the campaign’s collected petition signatures. While Hoskins claims the campaign was legally prevented from gathering signatures before Gov. Mike Kehoe signed the gerrymandered map into law, legal precedent in the state says otherwise. Meanwhile, Attorney General Catherine Hanaway has filed a lawsuit to block any citizen-led effort to repeal the assembly’s map. She argues that a referendum would violate both the state and federal constitutions, despite Missourians having a constitutional right to petition the government.
In Montana, groups behind two competing campaigns for non-partisan courts took Attorney General Knudsen to court, accusing him of injecting bias into the ballot language for their respective initiatives in order to mislead voters. The Montana Supreme Court ultimately ruled that he’d overstepped his authority in rewriting the ballot language. “Montana voters have ample experience with nonpartisan elections — the last 90 years of nonpartisan judicial elections being but one example.”
The legal maneuvers can extend well beyond the qualification phase and oftentimes are wielded during a voter-approved initiative’s implementation. Despite a resounding victory for reproductive rights in Missouri, former state Attorney General used a newly-passed bill this spring to file legal challenges against a court ruling that had allowed abortion care to resume in the state. The case continues to be pursued by his successor, Attorney General Hanaway.
These kinds of procedural taps and bad-faith legal interpretations on the part of state lawmakers are strategically used to drain time, money, and momentum from grassroots efforts. But as we’ve seen time and again, ballot measure campaigns and direct democracy defenders aren’t giving in without a fight.
Defending Direct Democracy
Arkansas
The Fight: A federal court has blocked state officials from enforcing six new laws that would have made it nearly impossible for Arkansans to use the ballot initiative process. These include an affidavit requirement that the judge called ‘draconian’, an 8th grade reading level requirement that’s already been weaponized against several initiative campaigns this year, and unnecessary burdens placed on voters trying to sign petitions.
Why It Matters: In his ruling, the judge repeatedly stressed violations of the First Amendment and ultimately argued that the state doesn’t have a legitimate reason limiting citizen initiatives. This is a huge win for Arkansans, who have worked for months to pursue initiatives defending direct democracy in the state and to granting the right to a clean and healthy environment.
Missouri
The Fight: People Not Politicians Missouri is using the state’s referendum process to challenge a gerrymandered redistricting map that would dismantle a Kansas City district, disenfranchising the state’s second-largest concentration of Black, Latine, and other communities of color. But key lawmakers are pulling out all the stops to crush the citizen-led effort. Missouri Secretary of State Denny Hoskins has refused to verify nearly 100,000 petition signatures collected from voters, forcing the campaign to sue to ensure those voters’ voices are heard. And the state’s Attorney General Catherine Hanaway has filed a federal lawsuit against the campaign, claiming that their (constitutionally-guaranteed) referendum effort violates the federal and state constitutions. She’s even sent I.C.E. to investigate the campaign’s signature collectors, while providing the public zero evidence to back up her claims.
Why It Matters: Missouri has faced a barrage of attacks on the initiative process in recent years, but especially after voters passed a 2024 initiative to restore reproductive rights and another to guarantee paid sick leave and raise the minimum wage. From legal challenges to hostile legislation and more, Missourians face one of the country’s most challenging ballot measure processes. BISC’s Executive Director, Chris Melody Fields Figueredo, explains that, “Missouri is a good indicator of what we’re going to face in 2026, and this has been true for the last several years.” But groups like People Not Politicians Missouri and Missouri Jobs With Justice aren’t giving in without a fight, and have rallied a growing number of voters to stand with them to defend direct democracy.
Nebraska
The Fight: The Respect Nebraska Voters coalition is pursuing a ballot initiative to protect the state’s citizen-led initiative process by raising the vote threshold required for legislators to make changes to voter-approved measures.
Why It Matters: The push to protect the state’s ballot initiative process comes on the heels of lawmakers partially repealing 2024’s popular paid sick leave initiative. The legislation — which passed by a margin of just one vote — stripped an estimated 140,000+ workers of the guaranteed right to earn paid sick time and overrode the will of the nearly 75% of voters who approved I-436.
Election 2025 Highlights
Issue: Civil Rights
Texas: Proposition 15 “Parental Rights” Amendment (LR) – PASSED: 69.9%
Why It Matters: While parental rights were already guaranteed by state laws, this constitutional amendment affirms that parents have the right to “control” their child’s upbringing — making it even more challenging for civil rights advocates to fight attacks on childhood vaccinations, LGBTQIA+ youth rights, and more.
Issue: Criminal Legal System
Maine Question 2: An Act to Protect Maine Communities by Enacting the Extreme Risk Protection Order Act (CI) – PASSED: 60.4%
Why It Matters: A huge victory for gun violence prevention, the passage of Question 2 will allow courts to temporarily prohibit a person from possessing dangerous weapons if their family, roommates, or law enforcement feel that person poses a threat to themselves or others.
Issue: Democracy
Maine Question 1: An Act to Require an Individual to Present Photographic Identification for the Purpose of Voting (CI) – FAILED: 38.5%
Why It Matters: Deceptively marketed as a voter ID measure, Question 1 also included a ban on ongoing absentee voting registration, the elimination of two days of early absentee voting, a reduction in the number of secure ballot drop boxes, and other attacks on the state’s popular absentee voting system. The measure’s defeat marks a huge win for voting rights advocates and again proves that defeating voter ID at the ballot is difficult but not impossible. Nevada will have the opportunity to join Maine in 2026.
Issue: Economic Justice
Colorado Proposition LL: Allow State to Retain Revenue From Proposition FF (LR) – PASSED: 63.7% and Proposition MM: Tax Deductions and Revenue for School Meals (LR) – PASSED: 57.1%
Why It Matters: An important win for Coloradans amid federal attacks on anti-hunger programs, the pair of legislatively-referred measures fund and expand the state’s free school meals program, Healthy Meals for All. Prop. LL will allow the state to divert roughly $11 million in excess tax revenue to the program, while Prop. MM increases taxes on wealthier Coloradans to raise an additional $95 million. That money will be used to fund free school meals, improve wages for cafeteria workers, fund grants for schools to purchase locally grown food, and even fill gaps in SNAP benefits.
Challenges to 2024 Ballot Measures
Issue: Healthcare
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- Nebraska Initiative 437: Medical Cannabis Legalization and Initiative 438: Medical Cannabis Regulation
- Legal Challenge: At the heart of an upcoming December 3 appeal trial is whether the pair of medical cannabis initiatives had rightfully qualified for the 2024 ballot. Led by former State Sen. John Kuehn and the Nebraska Attorney General’s Office, the lawsuit alleges that the campaigns failed to collect and notarize enough valid signatures. A district court judge previously rejected these claims, but the plaintiffs immediately appealed. The legal challenge comes amid the state’s slow and strained implementation process that has frustrated medical cannabis advocates in the year since voters approved the laws.
- Nebraska Initiative 437: Medical Cannabis Legalization and Initiative 438: Medical Cannabis Regulation
In Case You Missed It
BISC’s New Podcast: Direct Democracy Diaries: The entire first season of our podcast is LIVE! Hosted by BISC’s Executive Director Chris Melody Fields Figueredo and Director of Strategic Communications Caroline Sánchez-Avakian, this show spotlights the inspiring stories of activists, organizers, and campaign leaders from across the country and their tenacious efforts to turn grassroots momentum into lasting policy change. This show touches on everything from fighting for reproductive rights via the ballot, to pushing back on authoritarianism through the power of community organizing, to the breakthrough narratives that bridge cultural divides.
BISC’s Resource Library: Our Partner Portal Resource Library houses ballot measure information ranging from campaign tools, templates, and past campaign materials (Values, MOUS, RFPs, etc.) — to campaign debriefs and memos highlighting best practices. This library is a unique resource that can help campaigns and organizations build strategies and operationalize racial equity. To request access to the library, please email [email protected]