{"id":68967,"date":"2024-12-06T10:18:30","date_gmt":"2024-12-06T18:18:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/?p=68967"},"modified":"2024-12-06T10:18:30","modified_gmt":"2024-12-06T18:18:30","slug":"as-health-care-access-passes-in-state-ballots-so-do-ballot-restrictions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/?p=68967","title":{"rendered":"As Health Care Access Passes in State Ballots, So Do Ballot Restrictions"},"content":{"rendered":"
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By<\/span>Selen Ozturk<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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As state ballot measures advancing health access are advancing nationwide, so are those restricting ballot access.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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As state ballot measures advancing health access are advancing nationwide, so are those restricting ballot access.<\/p>\n

In 2023 alone, 75 bills were introduced in state legislatures to make the ballot measure process harder for voters to use; in 2024 so far, there have been 103 such bills.<\/p>\n

\u201cBallot measures are a form of direct democracy, across party lines. They let voters make meaningful change on issues they care about, even if they\u2019re not being addressed in their state legislatures\u201d \u2014 particularly health issues, said Avenel Joseph, interim executive vice president of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation at a Friday, November 22 Ethnic Media Services briefing about ballot access.<\/p>\n

The ballot measure landscape<\/h2>\n

A recent\u00a0study<\/a>\u00a0by Health Affairs found that, of the 534 U.S. state referenda and constitutional amendment ballot initiatives passed between 2014 and 2023, 63.5% were health care-related, most commonly concerning abortion and Medicaid.<\/p>\n

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