Ballot Initiatives For Direct Democracy: Chris Melody Fields Figueredo
December 8th, 2022
“Think about ballot measures as the people's tool.”
Chris Melody Fields Figueredo is the Executive Director of the Ballot Initiative Strategy Center, which seeks to strengthen democracy by building a national progressive strategy for ballot measures. We discuss ballot initiatives and how they put the issues directly into the hands of voters and out of the two-party system. It can really flip the script!
Ballot measures are often higher vote-getters than candidates. They also transcend party lines. Medicaid expansion has been a huge example in the last several years of being incredibly popular in red, blue, and purple states, and ballot measures gave power and agency to citizens to make policy changes. There is a huge opportunity in the coming years, especially around climate change.
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Credits:
Host: Mila Atmos
Guest: Chris Melody Fields Figueredo
Executive Producer: Mila Atmos
Producers: Zack Travis and Sara Burningham
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Chris Melody Fields Figueredo FINAL.mp3
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Welcome to Future Hindsight, a podcast that takes big ideas about civic life and democracy and turns them into action items for you and me. I'm Mila Atmos. You've heard it said a lot in the past couple of election cycles. Democracy is on the ballot this week. We're looking at that as a liberal proposition. In a lot of places ballot measures are offering opportunities for direct participation in shaping our democracy and outlining policy. Last week, as we debriefed the midterms, Cecile Richards pointed to instance after instance where ballot measures protected abortion, fought for fair maps, and expanded voting rights. There's a lot they can do. And there are folks like Chris Melody Fields Figueredo, who are working to strengthen our democracy using ballot measures. Chris is the Executive Director of the Ballot Initiative Strategy Center in Washington, DC. Welcome, Chris. Thank you for joining us.
Chris Melody Fields Figueredo: [00:01:43] Thank you for having me, Mila. I'm excited about the conversation.
Mila Atmos: [00:01:46] It's not the first time we've talked about ballot measures on this show. Earlier in the year, we spoke to Katie Fahey about her work to get a fair redistricting measure on the ballot and passed in Michigan. Ballot measures are not new, but I got the sense in the midterms that there are new ways they're being used, and I think your work is right in the middle of that. So maybe let's start with a brief outline to kind of set the table for this conversation. What are ballot measures and how can they be used?
Chris Melody Fields Figueredo: [00:02:17] So you can think about ballot measures as the people's tool and a form of direct democracy. What that means is it enables us as citizens in about half the country plus D.C., not a state yet, but hopefully before, in my lifetime it will be, allows us to take critical issues facing our communities, gather signatures in our community, and put those before our community members themselves. Right. We gather signatures. We go out into our communities, have conversations, collect those signatures, and then we put something that we think is important and that maybe our city council has an address maybe our state legislature hasn't addressed. We put that before communities. Now, in some states, right, only half the country has that citizen initiated process. A legislature can refer to something to the ballot. That means they for the example of abortion. Many states legislatures referred constitutional amendments to ballots to place before voters either on abortion bans like we saw in Kentucky and Kansas in 2022 or in some states, affirmatively protecting the right to reproductive rights like we saw in Vermont, Michigan, and California. So and that's why we call it the people's tools. It gives us power in a in a different way than doing something before Congress, talking to our legislators, writing a letter, marching in the streets. It actually engages us in a deeper way to make policy and make changes for our communities.
Mila Atmos: [00:03:57] Right. Well, so how do ballot measures kind of fit in with politics and campaigns? Or maybe I'll ask, how are they different in that context?
Chris Melody Fields Figueredo: [00:04:10] One of the ways they're very different than candidates, right, is you're looking at an issue itself. You know, when you go and get either your mail in ballot or if you go to your voting place and look what's on the ballot, you don't see a D or an R or an Independent or a Green Party next to that. You see the language of that issue itself. So, for example, in Nebraska this year, they had a ballot measure about raising the minimum wage over a set number of years to $15 per hour. That's what you see in front of you. Another way it's different is what we have often seen is they actually transcend party lines. So you can't make an assumption because an issue is maybe traditionally conservative or progressive. Right. You actually can't make an assumption just because of that, that that's how it's going to play out with a voter. And that's what we've seen over the last several years, like some issues that are traditionally seen as progressive, like raising minimum wage or raising a millionaire's tax to fund public education or public transportation or what we saw in 2022 about abortion
access. You can't make an assumption just because that state may lean one way or the other, that that's actually how a voter themself is going to see that issue because they're thinking about it of how it responds to or will have an impact on their daily lives versus what we hear in partisan conversations of I as a Democrat or you as a Republican. Right. Often. It sort of transcends those mindsets in the traditional partisan ways.
Mila Atmos: [00:06:02] Yeah, I like what you said there, that it really centers the policy initiative. And when you are in the booth and you're reading it, you reflect on how the outcome, whether you vote up or down on this, how it affects your own life directly, as opposed to how it will affect the fortunes potentially of the politicians who are potentially suggesting this legislation.
Chris Melody Fields Figueredo: [00:06:27] But, you know, ballot measures are also not agnostic to special interest money. Right? Actually, after Citizens United happened in 2010, we've actually seen more corporations, traditional special interests. You know, I think about Prop 22 in California in 2020, where Uber, Lyft, DoorDash, right. They put forth a ballot measure that on its surface seems like it would help what are called gig workers, but it actually treated them as differently than other workers and would have a reverberating effect on the rights that they had. We're seeing that more and more that, you know, corporations or companies, unfortunately, because of Citizens United, are trying to put these issues before the ballots different from the citizen-led process. I mean, it's part of, it can be part of the citizen led process. But, you know, Citizens United said corporations are people, too. And that's the thing that we're seeing happen more and more.
Mila Atmos: [00:07:28] Right? Yes. I want to turn to that about California specifically a little bit later on. But I wanted to ask you about your strategy that emphasizes how you win, that it's not enough to gather signatures, introduce a measure and win it by 50% plus one. What are you focusing on when you're setting strategy and choosing your battles?
Chris Melody Fields Figueredo: [00:07:50] So we really at the Ballot Initiative Strategy, think about who will be impacted. And unfortunately, often in policymaking, the very communities that we are seeking to help are not a part of that process at all. And that's been very true for ballot measures for a very long time. So when Biss thinks about
what we call our expanded definition of winning, of course we want to win, right? We know what it's going to take, right? Traditionally, it is 50% plus one of the vote on its surface. But are we building stronger civic engagement? Are we making organizations stronger? Are we centering black, Latinx, Indigenous, Asian and Pacific Islander, low income queer women? Are we young people? Are we centering them in this conversation? Are we strengthening their ability to build power in their communities? Have we done it in a grassroots way and are we going to leave something behind? We can't just think about the campaign itself, right? Campaigns come and go, you know, in a political election, what a political party or a candidate may do. They may build something up and then it goes away. We don't look at it that way. We want to look about what is the structure and the power that we are leaving that is going to make folks stronger for the next fight, for the next opportunity. What we leave behind is even more important than that win or loss. And that's how we think we actually build power for the long term.
Mila Atmos: [00:09:31] So you already mentioned some examples like minimum wage. And we just talked about Prop 22, about gig drivers. I wanted to look at some other specific examples and specifically Montana and abortion. And truth be told, I'm still kind of confused about what exactly happened there. Can you lay the table for us? What was on the ballot and what happened?
Chris Melody Fields Figueredo: [00:09:55] So Montana was a little bit different than the other states that had an abortion ballot measure this year. Specifically, Montana was proposing a measure that would further criminalize and stigmatize abortion by essentially preventing doctors from doing life-saving measures that would protect the the person who's pregnant and give them the ability to do their job. This came from the state legislature. This was not citizen led. You know, it's really rare when a person is pregnant, what is often called either born or live or late term abortions. That's really rare, but that has been used as propaganda in a way to take away abortion rights when the reality is that's a very intimate, private decision between a doctor and the person and their family of what are the measures that they need to do to make a health care decision. So it was a little bit different. It was very specific of of what happened in the pregnancy, whether a doctor or any medical professional could intervene. So that's how it's a little bit different from the other measures. And it's a little hard for people to understand. Ultimately, what it came down to, especially in Montana, was a private
decision between a person and their doctor. And that was really important to Montana voters and why they rejected that measure. You know, another important thing about Montana is every poll said that there was no way that this measure could be defeated. Right. But state leaders did not give up. They saw that their state legislature was not listening to them, was not protecting their privacy, was not protecting their health care. And they said, how are we going to come together as a coalition and work together differently, not only to defeat this measure, but to be stronger, to go into the next state legislative session where we know we're going to face more battles when it comes to reproductive rights. How are we doing this in a way where we're strengthening leadership, when we're strengthening the way we work together to be ready for that next fight, and then hopefully in another year or two or further years, they can actually take a proactive approach to further protect reproductive rights. So, you know, we're actually particularly proud of the work in Montana because they were one of our pilot programs around a tool that we've created called the Declaration of Equity Accountability of how campaigns can do this work differently in an equitable way, where the most impacted communities have power and decision making, where you're having really honest and transparent conversation and are accountable to each other. And they were one of our pilot projects and they won. So that one has a little special place in my heart and in our organizational heart, too, because a lot of folks counted them out and we believed it was possible. I think the story or the headline for Montana is "anything is possible." If you believe in the people and you center them and you give them the tools and the agency to change the outcome. So that one has a little bit of a special place in our heart at BISC.
Mila Atmos: [00:13:21] So I have a question about how how is your work different when you are pro a measure and when your anti measure and how do you communicate around that and how does the organizing look?
Chris Melody Fields Figueredo: [00:13:34] Yeah, I mean, often, especially on a proactive measure, you need a longer onramp. You know, one of the recent ballot measures that I can think about in 2018 in Florida, when I'm not sure if you've had Desmond Meade on your program, who led the campaign in Florida on rights restoration, re enfranchising formerly incarcerated individuals. Right. He knew before it even got to the ballot that this is an approach and a strategy that he wanted to take. And because Florida, unlike most states, to do a constitutional amendment you had to have
60% threshold to pass it. Really had to think about the conditions and the opportunities in the infrastructure that had to be built, especially because that campaign was led and organized by formerly incarcerated people. So often it can take more of an on ramp for some of these proactive measures. Also, humans are sometimes skeptical, and it's a little bit harder to get people to say yes versus no. So that's often another difference between a defensive measure. You know, there's different methods that you can at least in the case of 2022, the majority of the 132 statewide measures were initiated by the state legislators. There were actually only 30 citizen led measures in 2022, often in a defensive measure. One of the really important things as a person who's done communications being the first to frame an issue is really, really important. It's harder to come from a defensive posture sometimes, so it depends on what the issue is. But ultimately it's a lot harder to convince people to say yes than it is to say no. And part of that is is like the human psyche is, and we've actually seen this from our research, people don't want to make wrong decisions, especially if it impacts themselves in their communities. And so they are actually more likely to either skip a question if they don't understand the language, right. If they don't, if they don't feel like they've had the the voter education, they would rather just not answer that question. Right. Because they don't want to make, quote unquote, the wrong decision or they vote no because, you know, as humans instinctually, it's like, I don't know about this. So, yeah, no is my instinct to to say no to something.
Mila Atmos: [00:16:13] Hmm. Interesting. I haven't thought about that. That's fascinating. But yes, of course, we have seen that people show up and participate in the election for candidates and then don't fill out the ballot measure and vice versa. You know, that also happened in Kansas with the vote in August on abortion rights. And there were 20% of the vote that voted to uphold the right to an abortion in Kansas, didn't vote for any of the candidates in the primary. And I thought that was really fascinating. I mean, they're really motivated to come out and vote on this.
Chris Melody Fields Figueredo: [00:16:41] It is a high motivating factor. And, you know, one of the things that we know at BISC is just by putting a question on the ballot alone that does not guarantee success or defeat. Right. The voter education, the civic engagement work is so critical to the ability to defeat or approve a measure. And then what we have actually seen probably for the last decade is in many instances, ballot measures are higher vote getters than some of the candidates. That was definitely the
case in Kansas in August. That happened in some instances for the November 2022 elections. You know, I think Michigan Proposal 3 got more votes than the three Democratic, the gubernatorial the secretary of state and the attorney general. So it is this interesting difference between candidates or traditional voting that we can many times see that these ballot measures not only can be a higher vote getter, but they also transcend party lines. I mean, Kansas is a very good example. It was not only a higher vote getter, it required Democrats, Republicans, Independents, and it was a higher vote getter than both the Democratic and Republican gubernatorial candidates. And we see that happen time and time again.
Mila Atmos: [00:18:11] Yeah, I think that's so fascinating. It just tells you how motivated the American voter actually is in a way that I think is under-appreciated all the time. This is my personal opinion, of course, here. But I think that candidates should really be much more clear about where they stand, as opposed to just repeating party platforms. You know, like I'm a Democrat, so therefore I stand for this and I'm a Republican and therefore I stand for that. But actually talking about actually taking on the language of ballot measures, that's what people want to hear.
Chris Melody Fields Figueredo: [00:18:42] They wanna hear how you're going to change. What are you going to do to change my life? That's what people want to hear. An interesting thing in Michigan this year is none of those candidates ran away from abortion or voting rights. They did not. And that traditionally happens. In many states, they were very vocal in support of abortion. I mean, Governor Whitmer in Michigan had a case challenging the 1931 abortion ban there. So they didn't run away from these issues. They were actually very clear what they would do if they were re-elected. And now that's a Democratic trifecta state and all three ballot measures that had to do with reproductive rights or voting in elections. They all they all won. So, you know, traditionally candidates often run away from these issues. And I think Michigan is an example is you actually don't have to run away from these issues. This is what people want to hear.
Mila Atmos: [00:19:43] Mm hmm. We are going to take a quick break to hear from our sponsor, but when we come back, Chris is going to highlight the ways in which ballot measures can be an antidote to polarization. But first. Can we talk about notifications for a second? Who actually leaves those sounds on anymore? Well, besides that kind,
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Mila Atmos: [00:22:06] Let's talk about Medicaid expansion, which is not just about this cycle. States have passed it in other cycles, but South Dakota passed it this year by ballot measure. And this has me thinking about how ballot measures can really change the conversation in red states and bring some surprising results. Medicaid expansion has been an eye opener from that point of view, and I'd love to hear what you think about that.
Chris Melody Fields Figueredo: [00:22:29] No, I mean, again, I think Medicaid expansion is a great example of an issue that many state legislatures, many GOP controlled state legislatures, did not move forward with Medicaid expansion. If you look at the states in the last three election cycles that have passed Medicaid expansion, are traditionally conservative states. You look at South Dakota this year, you look at Missouri in 2020, Nebraska. Like you've just seen that particular issue, which is
ultimately about ensuring that low income or folks living in poverty have health care. It's been incredibly popular and it's just yet another example where unfortunately, sometimes our representatives of government are out of touch and are not listening to the very things that their constituents want. And that's one of the powerful things about ballot measures, is it gives us the power and agency as citizens to make those changes. And Medicaid expansion has been a huge example in the last several years of being incredibly popular in red, blue, purple states.
Mila Atmos: [00:23:43] Mm hmm. Well, I think climate is another area where it feels like taking the conversation out of the two party campaign model and putting it directly into the hands of voters can really flip the script. What are the successes you're seeing in terms of ballot measures and climate and what's the potential?
Chris Melody Fields Figueredo: [00:24:00] I mean, New York just had a huge success this year about the funds that the state will be able to generate in order to address climate change. I mean, that's a huge success. And I think that is absolutely an example to think about where, again, an issue that has become hyper political, very partisan, but people are seeing in in their communities the impact of climate change. Think about all the floods that have happened this year, the rising temperatures. I mean, I remember in November in Washington, D.C., where I live, it was like 80 degrees one day and I was like, whoa, it is November. I should not be wearing a t-shirt going outside. So I think there is a huge opportunity in the coming years, especially around climate change, for citizens to look at opportunities like they have not been able to move forward in Congress, like the Green New Deal. And how might you be able to address those issues on the state level for for their communities? So I think there's a huge opportunity. I mean, another issue thinking about that that did not move forward at the federal level this year around paid leave for all and the care economy. I think there's a huge opportunity to take paid leave to states. And actually in Colorado, there was, it was the first state to pass paid leave through a ballot measure. I think there's an opportunity there. So, you know, when I think about the future, I think it's boundless of what we have the opportunity to do on so many of the critical issues that face our communities from climate change, from the care economy, from actually creating a just criminal legal system. There's just so much opportunity ahead of us.
Mila Atmos: [00:25:56] Yeah, well, I want to pick up there on the just criminal legal system, because there are five states that voted on banning slavery in the carceral system. Those measures passed actually in Alabama, Oregon, Vermont and Tennessee, but did not pass in Louisiana. Were you surprised by that?
Chris Melody Fields Figueredo: [00:26:14] So the interesting thing about Louisiana and this is actually one of the very critical things about ballot measures. Is the language like how is the measure the policy itself written? To what I said earlier, it's a lot easier for people to say no than yes. Right. If it's not clear, and the language was incredibly confusing in Louisiana. Even some of the Democratic state legislator who proposed the measure was telling voters. The Black Caucus came out against it because the language was so confusing. So now the opportunity in in Louisiana for those legislators who are like this language was too confusing, vote no because we don't want to open a door for bad things to happen. Now they have the opportunity to go into the state legislative session and that is something that your listeners, like if you think about opportunity, you need to hold them accountable and make sure that they go into the state legislature and address that language. But, you know, Colorado was the first state to do it in 2018, and Nebraska and Utah followed in 2020. And there's actually a large national network that is trying to remove slavery from every state constitution and the 13th Amendment of the United States Constitution.
Mila Atmos: [00:27:34] Yeah, well, constitutional amendments are tricky, but. Chris Melody Fields Figueredo: [00:27:36] There's definitely a path.
Mila Atmos: [00:27:39] So there's a thread running through our conversation here that I want to kind of follow a bit further. And it's about how ballot measures can blur party lines. Do you think ballot measures can get us out of the doom loop of our democracy where polarization breeds even more polarization?
Chris Melody Fields Figueredo: [00:27:59] I do. I actually think this year, and I would say even the years before, but especially this year, ballot measures have been and really were in 2022, a way to bypass partisan politics and turn people power into policies that can transcend divides and improve lives. And I believe that speaks to the unifying power of ballot measures. I think looking at the states that defeated abortion
bans or affirmatively protected abortion rights in certain states like, you know, that allowed people to have conversations in their communities and come together in a way they probably may not have done before. So I actually think that is what I am hopeful about. Like the power of ballot measures is some of these issues that have gotten so hyper politicized because we have a two party system in the United States, I actually think they have the ability to unify in ways that we haven't seen in the last couple of years. And yeah, I do. I think that that is that's that's an opportunity. It's what we do next, right? Like, do we just like, okay, we won or oh, we defeated this. What are the continued conversations we're going to have in these communities? I think that's incredibly important because that's how you change people's hearts and minds, right? You actually have to have those really hard and difficult conversations. I mean, I have those all the time in my family. If we're unwilling to have those hard conversations and see each other's humanity, that's going to make it hard for us to move forward as a country. And I think that's really what is at stake right now, is not only are we going to have a democracy, are we truly going to defeat fascism because we haven't yet. And are we going to see each other as full human beings that deserve dignity, that deserve to thrive? That's the world I want to live in. I believe every single one of us, whether we may agree politically or not, we deserve to have thriving lives. We deserve to have what we need. We need more than just survival. Right. I think a lot of us know how to survive. I want us to thrive and live in the abundance that I know surrounds us. So I think that's what's at stake here. And I believe if we want to change conversations, we we we can do that. We have the opportunity to do that. There are some people I know I'm never going to change their mind, but I believe and I think this is the hopeful, optimistic person that I am. I think it's the, it's the daughter that my my parents raised. I even believe the people right now who are fighting to take my rights away as a queer immigrant woman, I believe and I hope that one day they will call me sister and friend. That's the world I want to live in. And I choose to believe that that's the world we're going to create.
Mila Atmos: [00:31:24] Well, it's possible. And I love your optimism. So I have a question about ballot measures as potentially being democracy-dulling from overuse. And I'm thinking specifically about California, where there were seven statewide ballot measures this time around. And some years there can be hundreds of local measures as well. So I'm not the first one to point out that just gathering a basic understanding of the issues across seven different measures is a lot of work for voters. Is there a point where it's just too much?
Chris Melody Fields Figueredo: [00:32:00] Oh, I mean, I think any Californian would say it has gotten too much. Actually, I would say most Californians would say that it's become an industry. Ballot measures in the state. You do see the impact of corporations bringing issues before the ballot. You see how when you don't have guardrails, you can see seven, eight, ten state wide measures. You can see even more on the municipal level. And I'm not saying that that is not a reason not to have it, but I think if you talk to a lot of folks in California, they're exhausted. You know, they come to the election, every election and they're like, how many of these am I going to have to read? And do I actually understand that? So I do think, you know, with anything when it comes to democracy, some kind of guardrails or guidance is important. It is important because if it becomes overly saturated, then people become confused and then it may defeat the purpose of why you have we have the people's tool in the beginning. So.
Mila Atmos: [00:33:05] Right. Well, staying with California, I'm also thinking about things like Prop 209 in 1996 that banned affirmative action and had a devastating effect on college admissions for underrepresented groups in that state and Prop 13, which passed in 1978, you know, which limited, as, you know, property taxes and continues to have knock on effects with wider wealth gaps, unstable education funding, and housing shortages. So I suppose I'm asking, you know, ballot measures can cut both ways. And how do you work with that?
Chris Melody Fields Figueredo: [00:33:39] 100%. It can be a tool for good, maybe, right? Or it can have devastating effects. Prop 13 has had a devastating impact on the racial wealth gap in the state. I mean, if you think a neighbor state, not too far. I don't think exactly a neighbor. But Colorado, when the Taxpayer Bill of Rights was passed, that's had a huge impact on state revenue and the ability to pay for certain things like public housing. Luckily, they they actually pass this year a ballot measure that would address some of the housing issues in that state. But yeah, I mean, think about Prop 8 in California, too, in 2008 where a ban on same sex marriage. So, yeah, it absolutely can cut both ways. And for me, it makes me think about the tools and the infrastructure that have to be built continuously and sustained to be ready. I mean, to what I was saying earlier, right. Often something gets built up during an election year and then it goes back down. How are we actually continuously sustaining state based group, local groups, local civic engagement group to continuously go out into communities and have
these discussions or fight back? And then I think that's true with democracy, and that's our experiment in democracy, right? Sometimes in an election your person is going to win. And sometimes they're going to lose. And what I'm hopeful for, what we need to do is, is ensure that we have the checks and balances and avenues for people in communities to go back and change or, you know, fight back in ways that can undo some of the harm that's been done. I mean, that's so much true in our democratic way life in the United States is... A lot of these systems and structures were based in in racist beliefs, like I wasn't included in the idea of democracy when it was first created. But I still believe in the idea of a government that is formed by the people. So my job now is to address the structures and those systems and build new or reimagine them in a way that will hopefully provide a pathway to liberation for all of us. So yeah, so the initial question is, yeah, it can cut both ways and that is the experiment of democracy. Now how are we going to go back and address some of the harm that has been created from the past and create a new future?
Mila Atmos: [00:36:28] Mm hmm. Well, I love what you're saying about that sustained, continuous movement building and year-round, community based civic action. It's what we were talking about with Cecile Richards last week and is what we focus on here at Future Hindsight. We can't fall asleep at the wheel or walk away the day after the election. It's an ongoing living, breathing project that affects all of our daily lives. So with that in mind, what are two things everyday people can do to get engaged with ballot measures?
Chris Melody Fields Figueredo: [00:37:01] Well, whatever state you are in, more than likely something maybe on the municipal level or maybe at the statewide level, something may have passed right in your state. So what you can do now is ensure that whatever you the voter approved initiative, whether it's raising the minimum wage, whether it's affordable housing, make sure you hold your city council, your state legislatures, their feet to the fire and make sure that those initiatives are implemented and then protect the process itself. You know, one thing we didn't get to talk in depth about is as citizens have turned to the initiative process more and more to bring about change. We are facing, you know, really alarming attacks on the process itself and the ability of the people to use this tool. So those are two immediate things that folks can do, is, one, like guarantee, like you just voted for it. Go to your state legislators, your city council members and say, yes, we approve this, this is what we want. Implement it,
please, and then protect the process itself. Make sure that when they go into state legislative session, we're already seeing bills filed in states that would make it harder for citizens to use this process, say, no, I want this. This is the way my community can speak out. So those are two things folks can do right now.
Mila Atmos: [00:38:25] Excellent. So tell us, what are the states where ballot measures are at risk?
Chris Melody Fields Figueredo: [00:38:30] Arizona is definitely one of the states. Missouri. Every state legislative cycle. Florida. Mississippi. We've been working with amazing Black-led groups in the state to restore their ballot initiative process after the state Supreme Court struck it down. South Dakota, I mean, they rejected an initiative in June of 2022. I have a feeling that state legislature may try to do something again. They've done it in recent memory. So, yeah, I mean, those are a handful of states that we have seen time and time again have have made some effort. Oklahoma is a, is another state that we're already starting to see efforts to undermine that process.
Mila Atmos: [00:39:12] So I have a technical question about that, which is that if if these states are trying to undermine that process, my guess is that they are doing this from the legislature, like the people who are there. So then, you know, if you're not an elected official, elected representative in that state House, how can you fight against it?
Chris Melody Fields Figueredo: [00:39:31] Well, I mean, you've got to lobby. You got to go. I mean, I know.
Mila Atmos: [00:39:35] Talk to your elected.
Chris Melody Fields Figueredo: [00:39:37] Talk to your elected officials. You know, I'm just thinking about Missouri and the amazing grassroots groups there who have been fighting this year after year. They have been fighting attacks of the process. They have worked on letters, having citizens speak before hearings. Talk to your representative and government and say, no, we want this this tool to remain.
Mila Atmos: [00:40:04] So as we are rounding out the hour here, looking into the future, what makes you hopeful?
Chris Melody Fields Figueredo: [00:40:10] I talked a lot about hope. It must be like that.
Mila Atmos: [00:40:13] Yes, you did. You did. Tell us the one number one thing. Chris Melody Fields Figueredo: [00:40:17] I'm in a very beautiful good mood today. Mila Atmos: [00:40:18] You are. You are.
Chris Melody Fields Figueredo: [00:40:20] The sun is shining. The puppy. I have a six month old puppy who has somehow stayed sleeping this, this entire time. As a mother of a 15-year old Black girl. And seeing how young people turned out in in the midterms. Man, young people give me hope when I have conversations with my daughter and like some of the things that we are have questions about as an adult, it's just not, it's not even. They're like, "Is that good for people? Okay, well then let's do it." I mean, young people give me so much hope because they have clarity in the world they want to live in. And man, if we just give them more ways to to check and be a part of the power that we're building, I think the world that I know I want to live in before I leave this earth. I have so much hope. And then. Just looking at the results of the 2022 elections when it comes to ballot measures, I have so much hope of what is possible. Yes, we can talk about all the abortion rights measures, but in Nevada and an Equal Rights Amendment- esque initiative also passed like it gives me hope that maybe we can look at it more of a gender justice in the future. It gives me hope that even after we've technically abolished slavery in this country, but we have seen the impact of having the exception in our 13th Amendment and how that has impacted prison labor and mass incarceration. And four states just abolished it. Even like two of the marijuana measures that passed. Like both of them, both in Maryland and in Missouri, it contained expungements. That's the conversation we need to have is, how are we decriminalizing and impacting past harm by a very unjust drug policy system? So, you know, I think very much this this election showed us that. Democracy is still alive and we still have to fight for it and people are willing to fight for it. They are. That's what gives me hope going into 2023 and 2024 is we still face major challenges as a country. But we're not going down without a fight.
Mila Atmos: [00:43:07] Well, that's all well said. Thank you very much for being on Future Hindsight. It was really a pleasure to have you on.
Chris Melody Fields Figueredo: [00:43:14] Thank you for having me.
Mila Atmos: [00:43:17] Chris Melody Fields Figueredo is the executive director of the Ballot Initiative Strategy Center. Next week on Future Hindsight, we're joined by Jackie Salit and Thom Reilly. They're co-directors of the Center for an Independent and Sustainable Democracy at Arizona State University and co-authors of The Independent Voter. Here's Jackie.
Jackie Salit: [00:43:43] Independents are making a statement about the culture, the practice, and the destructiveness of the current political culture. And that is a viewpoint and a statement and arguably even an action that places them outside of the typical ideologically drawn spectrum. They care very deeply about this country, and their decision to be an Independent is an expression of that.
Mila Atmos: [00:44:15] We're thinking about independent voters and honoring their place in our democracy. Next time on Future Hindsight.
Have you checked us out on Instagram yet? We've got a bunch more tips to help you build your Civic action toolkit. Follow us on Instagram @FutureHindsightPod to get special updates, episode clips, and everything in between. This episode was produced by Zack Travis and Sara Burningham. Until next time, stay engaged.
The Democracy Group: [00:44:50] This podcast is part of the democracy group.