Republicans are trying to raise the bar for voters to amend their state constitutions [View all]

Source: NBC News

Sept. 13, 2025, 5:00 AM EDT


A growing number of Republican-led states are moving forward with efforts to make it more difficult for citizen-led ballot initiatives to succeed. The latest move has come in Missouri, where the GOP-controlled Legislature gave final approval Friday to a bill that would significantly raise the threshold to amend the state constitution through that process. The legislation, once signed by the governor, will still need to be approved by voters.

So far this year, lawmakers have advanced or enacted bills that would create more hurdles for the citizen-led ballot measure process in at least seven other states, according to an NBC News review, including Arkansas, Florida and Oklahoma.

And the Fairness Project, a nonprofit organization that helps progressive groups advance ballot measures, released an analysis this month finding that 148 bills had been introduced across 15 state legislatures this year that proposed weakening the process in some way — a nearly twofold increase since 2023.

The uptick comes as progressives have found success with ballot measure campaigns to expand or protect abortion rights in state constitutions following the U.S. Supreme Court’s reversal of Roe v. Wade in 2022. In 2024, those initiatives passed in seven of the 10 states where they were on the ballot, including Missouri.

Read more: https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/elections/republicans-are-trying-raise-bar-voters-amend-state-constitutions-rcna230717