Supporters of citizen ballot initiatives see GOP attempts to crack down on the measures as a threat to direct democracy, ademillo reports:
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — Arkansas voters have been active in recent years, passing ballot initiatives that legalized medical marijuana, raised the minimum wage and expanded casino gambling.Arkansas’ GOP-dominated Legislature has taken steps this year that will make it harder to put such proposals before voters, and they are not the only ones.
In Arkansas, the changes came after voters legalized medical marijuana in 2016 and last year approved raising the state’s minimum wage to $12 an hour by 2021. The success of the medical marijuana initiative was celebrated by Arkansas residents such as Joanie Hopson, who was one of the first in line when retailers started selling marijuana last month. The 36-year-old said she suffers from a host of ailments, including muscle spasms, seizures and a connective tissue disorder, and cried when she was finally able to buy cannabis legally to ease her pain.
“When you change your constitution three times every other year, that’s more like legislating than having a constitution,” said Pitsch, who noted the proposal on next year’s ballot also would raise the threshold for lawmakers to send measures to voters. “This is not supposed to be driven by out-of-state special interests; it’s supposed to be driven by Floridians, but that’s really not what’s happened,” DeSantis said. “If people really feel the need to do it, then you band together, you do your organizations, you do it. Right now, you just have one guy write a check and you pay these people per signature. It creates a lot of bad incentives.”
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