BISC Announces Our 2023 Ballot Measures to Watch
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
October 30, 2023
PRESS CONTACT:
Caroline Sánchez Avakian
[email protected]
The Ballot Initiative Strategy Center Announces their 2023 Ballot Measures To Watch
WASHINGTON — With the 2023 November elections fast approaching, the Ballot Initiative Strategy Center (BISC) has outlined their 2023 ballot measure campaigns to watch in Ohio, Maine, and Colorado taking center stage at the ballot box this November.
Most of this year’s high-profile proposals originated in Ohio, where initiatives like Issue 2 advanced marijuana legalization efforts and Issue 39 — the People’s Budget Initiative — addressed the state’s lackluster civic infrastructure. After several months of resisting legislators’ failed attempts to manipulate the voter threshold of the state’s ballot initiative in order to thwart its results, a grassroots citizen-initiated campaign led by Ohioans United for Reproductive Rights, still successfully got this historic initiative on the ballot. Ohio will also represent the nation’s only reproductive rights measure with Issue 1, The Right to Reproductive Freedom for Health and Safety.. Passing Amendment 1 allows Ohio voters to prevent abortion from being banned at six weeks into pregnancy and would enshrine reproductive rights into the state’s constitution. Issue 1 will have a monumental effect both for Ohioans and for the future of abortion rights nationwide as states across the country gear up to run proactive and defensive abortion rights measures in 2024.
Maine organizers are also leading the charge in this year’s citizen-led ballot initiatives by presenting voters with a number of amendments including Question 2, known as Protect Maine Elections, which would determine the fate of future elections in the state by prohibiting foreign governments from spending money to influence ballot initiatives or candidate campaigns. Additionally, voters will decide on Question 6, which would enable tribal nations to autonomously interact with the federal government for indigenous-focused programs that Native Mainers regularly miss out on, and Question 3’s proposal to establish the Pine Tree Power Company in order to replace the state’s two investor-owned utilities with a new nonprofit power company.
BISC is also tracking Colorado’s Proposition HH which places a cap on local district property tax collections at the rate of inflation while simultaneously moving billions of dollars of surplus revenue into Colorado education over the course of ten years.
As a national infrastructure organization focused on partnering with in-state coalitions to uplift the ballot initiative process and progressive ballot measures, BISC will continue to work with, support and uplift our state and national partners to protect our right to manage our bodies, our destinies, and our right to fair representation.
To get more in-depth analysis on the ballot measure landscape and the measures we’re watching, please contact [email protected] to speak with one of our experts.
You can also check out BISC’s Ballot Measure Hub and Election Tracker for updates.