The Ballot Measures Aim to Reduce Partisanship. Can They Fix American Politics?

Eight states are likely or expected to introduce initiatives to change redistricting, or give voters the chance to choose their own candidates.

By Michael Wines

Jun 25, 2024 11:13 AM

Americans of both parties routinely express deep concern about the state of the country’s democracy. This fall, many voters may have a chance to do something about it, by voting on state ballot measures related to the nuts and bolts of elections and governance.

Eight states including Ohio and seven other states largely located in the West The eight states appear likely to introduce ballot measures that will either change redistricting laws or amend electoral rules to stop extreme partisanship and allow voters more control over who they vote for.

Redistricting measures on ballots are not unusual however, since the introduction of citizen-backed ballot initiatives in the early 1900s, there has never been a year that has not had at least three elections-system initiatives, as per the online database for elections Ballotpedia.

“I just feel like the voice of the people has gotten more and more diluted,” Kathy Cunningham, an experienced bioscience expert of 55 years from Cincinnati, Ohio, stated last month following her signature on a petition to support the Ohio ballot measure to remove the state’s gerrymandered electoral maps. “When there’s an enormous power imbalance what can you do to get it back? It gives the impression that we’re in a democracy, but perhaps we’re not.”

Ohio is a hotspot of discontent. A state where there is a lot of dysfunction, especially the $60 million corruption scandal and a largely the gerrymandering of maps has left many within the state angry and unhappy with the current state of their government.

Many thousands of Ohioans have signed petitions created by a shrewdly named group, Citizens Not Politicians in pursuit of an unattainable objective: removing the gerrymandering maps that have granted Republicans an overwhelming majority over the Legislature and a majority of Ohio’s 15 House seats.

A proposal that would allow an independent commission to draw political maps, not politicians is almost likely to be included on November’s ballot.

In six states (including Arizona, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Nevada and South Dakota — would end closed or semi-closed primaries elections and instead have primary elections open to all candidates and all eligible voters. (Closed primaries are only open to those registered with the primary’s political party. Semi-closed primary elections prohibit candidates from other parties but let non-affiliated voters vote).

It is believed that the Colorado and Nevada measures will also replace traditional winner-take-all elections by introducing the ranked-choice system, where voters rank the most popular candidate candidates according to preference. Oregon’s Democratic-controlled Legislature has also voted on a party basis to put the measure ranked-choice in the November election.

The supporters of these campaigns claim they’re tapping into a reservoir of unhappiness among voters an unjust system of governance that doesn’t consider the needs of ordinary citizens.

“The closed primary system is hard-wired to reward partisanship,” said Joe Kirby, who is a former Sioux Falls business executive who is in charge of this South Dakota effort. “We want to have a Legislature that reflects South Dakota values,” -but not the values he added from the 17 percent who voted out in the primary election.

The main purpose of these initiatives is to attract more voters to an electoral process that is democratic, specifically during the numerous primary elections, where the turnout is low and those who have extreme views are able to exert a large influence.

Closed primaries, as the argument goes, strip the independent voters who are a growing portion of the electorate which is in some places, the largest of the right to vote on general-election candidates. Candidates who participate in open primaries are enticed to appeal to not just those who are independent, but also those from the other party and, theoretically at a minimum, ought to move them towards the center of political power.

Gerrymandered maps can make elections so unbalanced that those with a low chance of winning rarely even bother to nominate general election candidates. (Nationally around four out of 10 legislative races in the state are contested by just the one person.) In those instances the general election winner must be able to win over the those who vote in the primary, and not the larger electorate which is voted out in November.

The advocates of ranked-choice elections claim they don’t just allow voters to have a bigger chance to choose the final winner of a contest and also give candidates who attempt to attract an extensive portion of voters.

It’s no surprise that electing moderates could change the climate that has created the G.O.P. an ideal home for extremists of the far right according to Richard L. Hasen, an expert on election law as well as director of the Safeguarding Democracy Project at the University of California, Los Angeles and school of Law.

“So much of this has to do with the battle for the soul of the Republican Party,” the Republican Party’s soul,” he declared.

It’s not easy to convince everyone of the logic. Research suggests that halting the practice of gerrymandering and implementing certain forms of ranked choice voting may decrease hyper-partisanship as well as encourage co-operation. But evidence in favor of open primaries is less clear.

The proposed changes are popular all across political spectrums of all states. They’re one of the top priorities of those who support reforms to our American political system as well as wealthy donors are often are associated with causes that have a liberal inclination. State groups who campaign to implement the laws aren’t just multi-party, but are also controlled of moderate Republicans in states that are deeply red such as Idaho, Montana and South Dakota.

Republican Party leaders are less favorable. Legislative bodies of Arizona along with Missouri have put measures on the November ballot to prohibit rank-choice voting, require closed primaries or both. In Alaska an initiative led by citizens will also ask voters to end the state’s system of ranked-choice elections.

Supporters of the G.O.P. Leadership are likely to invest funds into restraining the majority of these ballot initiatives. This could result in the occurrence of expensive election battles this autumn.

The political stakes are high in Ohio and the fact that new political maps could ease the Republicans currently in control of one of the states 15 Congress seats. This means that the fight over redistricting reform could be a major source of tens of billions of dollars.

Last month, Claire Wagner, a volunteer with Citizens Not Politicians and a member of the Ohio League of Women Voters has received more than twenty signatures for petitions supporting the amendment to redistricting at the Rhinegeist Brewery the beer hall close to downtown Cincinnati.

The signers comprised a diverse bunch. They included Elizabeth Fisher-Smith, 63, and Leigh Smith, 64, from the liberal Hyde Park neighborhood of Cincinnati that for a number of decades has been at the eastern part of the conservative, rural 2nd Congressional District. It is Catherine Cervantes, 47, of the conservative West Chester township north of Cincinnati who compared the gerrymandering process to the oppression of African American migrants recounted in the book that won awards ” The Warmth of Other Suns.”

The prospect of organized resistance to this amendment appears expected soon. An ex-treasurer of Republican political campaigns was registered this spring as treasurer for the group Ohioans for Fair Districts that is expected to oppose the amendment.

The Republican President of the State Senate, Matt Huffman has outlined the opposition’s arguments during an interview in February in The Cincinnati Enquirer, explaining that the election is “clearly and essentially an endeavor by leftist organizations, folks from outside the United States, to ensure they have the people they want elected. Gerrymandering at its best.”

The first money to support the redistricting amendment came mostly from left-leaning supporters, such as The American Civil Liberties Union, unions of teachers and the Sixteen Thirty Fund, a significant donor to progressive and pro-democracy organizations which has the largest financial supporter, including the Swiss billionaire named Hansjorg Wyss.

However, the this amendment’s support also transcends party lines. The actual leader in the election, Maureen O’Connor, is an ex- Republican chief justice on the Ohio Supreme Court who cast many decisive votes to overturn the previous map of the political landscape. The amendment she fought for she claimed that in an interview to The New York Times, it was “the most important thing I’ve ever done.”

Although they’re admirable some experts and activists argue that the proposed solutions are not the best way to treat the ills of American democracy.

“Everyone agrees that our political system is dysfunctional,” said Nate Persily, a leading expert in the field of democracy and voting in the course of Stanford Law School. “But this isn’t an effective method to handle our hair-on-fire moment. If insurrectionists are tearing down the Capitol doors There’s only so much change in the primary election rules will accomplish.”

However, Chuck Coughlin, a former campaign manager and advisor for 2 Republican governors from Arizona believes that anything that reduces the grip of the two parties is an important step towards the direction of progress.

He is the leader of his organization, Make Elections Fair Arizona, the campaign to introduce the Arizona ballot measure that would abolish semi-closed primaries across the state. The campaign has already collected more than 100,000 signatures, which is higher than the 384,000 required to put it on November’s ballot.

“Everyone’s unhappy with both parties except the extreme partisans,” the president said.

Alain Delaqueriere contributed research.