In a troubling trend emerging from the 2024 elections, citizen-driven efforts to reform America’s electoral system and strengthen democracy are increasingly being thwarted by powerful elements within both the Republican and Democratic parties. From Ohio to Idaho, Colorado to Missouri, popular initiatives aimed at ending gerrymandering, implementing ranked-choice voting, and establishing open primaries have faced stiff opposition – often through deceptive tactics and torrents of dark money.
Ohio’s Gerrymander Gambit
Perhaps the most egregious example came in Ohio, where voters were subjected to an Orwellian campaign of misinformation. A citizen-led initiative to create an independent redistricting commission to combat the state’s notorious gerrymandering was twisted by Republican operatives into a ballot measure that appeared to do the exact opposite.
Voters were told that supporting Issue One would “repeal constitutional protections against gerrymandering” when in fact it aimed to establish them. The result? The very citizens who had overwhelmingly backed redistricting reform in 2015 and 2018 ended up voting against their own interests, with 54% rejecting the initiative they thought would make gerrymandering worse.
It is hard to recognize Ohio. The consequences of extreme gerrymandering have been obvious here.
– Former Ohio Governor Bob Taft (R)
Assaults on Independent Redistricting
Ohio’s unbreakable gerrymander has allowed over a decade of corruption and unpopular legislation to flourish, with lawmakers comfortably insulated from voter backlash. The state supreme court rejected the latest district maps as unconstitutional seven times, but cowed Republicans, with assistance from Trump-appointed federal judges, ran out the clock and imposed the skewed maps anyway.
The story was similar in other states like Idaho, where far-right legislators have worked relentlessly to restrict the citizen initiative process ever since voters used it to expand Medicaid in 2018 against the legislature’s wishes. Lawmakers, recognizing ballot measures as the last avenue for the public to check their power, have sought to make Idaho’s already onerous process even more difficult.
Blocking Reform With Big Money
When determined citizens pushed forward with redistricting reforms, ranked-choice voting, and open primaries this year in states like Nevada and Colorado, they found themselves drowned out by tidal waves of oppositional dark money. Groups funded by billionaires and shady right-wing donors ran deeply misleading ads, branding the pro-democracy measures as everything from unproven and complicated to enabling rich elites and threatening school bathrooms.
Prominent among the antagonists was Leonard Leo’s network, which has already captured the U.S. Supreme Court and sectors of the federal judiciary. Now Leo and allies are pouring untold sums into front groups to spook voters and lock down right-wing minority rule in the states. Some Democrats have also joined the fray, preferring to cling to power in their strongholds rather than open up primaries to independent voters.
We warned the Democratic party that disaster was coming. They didn’t listen.
– Dustin Guastella, Democratic consultant
A Dangerous Trend
This bipartisan assault on citizen-driven electoral reform represents an alarming trend in American politics. With most states now heavily gerrymandered to favor one party, ballot initiatives that unite voters across ideological lines have represented a critical remaining path to make elections fairer and more competitive.
But 2024 demonstrated that anti-majoritarian elements, armed with expansive war chests and few scruples about their tactics, are increasingly viewing these reforms as threats to their entrenched power. By weaponizing partisanship and disinformation, they are working to slam the door on this vital mechanism of direct democracy.
The coming years will likely see these battles escalate, as reformers and a citizenry increasingly hungry for change come up against forces determined to keep a tight grip on the levers of power. How effectively pro-democracy advocates can adapt to these deceptive new challenges, and rally the public behind their cause, may well determine the future health of America’s ailing electoral system.
The good news is that the opposition’s tactics, once exposed to sunlight, are not that difficult to see through. But it will require unceasing work to educate and mobilize voters, pierce the propaganda, and keep open these precious remaining pathways to reform – not just in 2024, but for elections to come.
