Despite elections concluding over a month ago, voters in certain states are realizing there’s more to achieving change than merely casting a ballot. Various lawmakers in numerous states are intent on twisting or even negating selected outcomes of the vote. In North Carolina, for instance, Republican officials remain determined to diminish the influence of the upcoming Democrat governor. Meanwhile, in Missouri, Republicans are laying groundwork to retract previously affirmed abortion protections. Conversely, in Massachusetts, it’s the Democrats undermining voters’ attempts for increased legislative accountability.
Actions executed since the Nov 5 elections merely further an alarming trend that’s garnered increased attention in recent years. Critics view these power plays as starkly undemocratic. ‘A voter who casts their vote, doesn’t usually anticipate someone thereafter overturning or dismissing their expressed choice,’ opines Anne Whitesell, an Assistant Professor of Political Science at Miami Uni in Ohio.
Manipulative tactics range from complete reversals to sluggishness in executing voter-approved ballot initiatives. For instance, there are instances of refusal to grant necessary funding, a prevalent approach adopted by some Republican governors and lawmakers post voter-approved Medicaid expansion under the Affordable Care Act. Often, these matters had to be resolved in court which extended the time lag between vote and actual implementation.
North Carolina offers a glaring instance of a legislature attempting to obstruct the voters’ decision. The voters here managed to tip the balance, ending the Republican supermajority for the upcoming two-year session and electing Democrats to several statewide offices. Despite this, Republican lawmakers during a lame-duck session managed to enforce several widespread changes before the end of their veto-proof majority.
These alterations included snatching powers from several Democrats elected to statewide office. The new changes stripped the incoming governor of the authority to appoint members to the state elections board. In the new arrangement, the Republican switch gives the state’s auditor control over the state election board. The new legislation further dilutes the governor’s power to fill state court of appeals and state supreme court vacancies, while barring the attorney general from expressing legal views contrary to those of the legislature.
Patrick Williamson, a representative from the Fair Elections Center, points out over 5.7 million voters in North Carolina selected their chosen candidates based on their understanding of the offices those officials were supposed to hold. ‘This is not what voters had in mind when they cast their votes last November,’ he stated.
He also highlighted the contradiction with voters’ decisions in 2018, when they denied a proposed amendment seeking to limit Cooper’s prerogatives regarding the elections board.
In Massachusetts, where voters had overwhelmingly supported a directive to empower the state auditor to inspect the Legislature, Democrats, having command over both chambers, declared such a vote infringed upon distinctions of power. State Auditor Diana DiZoglio accused lawmakers of strategizing to undermine the proposition, intending only to limit the scope of any legislative review.
Following Nashville voters opting for a community oversight board for their city’s police force, the Republican-dominated Legislature passed a law that effectively eviscerated such entities.
Earlier this year, in Utah, the state’s Supreme Court ruled that lawmakers had violated voters’ constitutional rights post the creation of a citizen-led redistricting commission to formulate new congressional maps. Although voters approved the initiative in 2018, the Republican-ruled Legislature, two years later, curtailed the commission’s authority & drafted its own partisan maps, sparking off a legal dispute.
In 2018, Democrat-controlled District of Columbia council chose to revoke a voter-sanctioned initiative that had intended to elevate the minimum wage of servers and other tipped workers.
John Fortier, senior resident in the American Enterprise Institute, admits he’s uncertain over the specifics of the lame-duck session in North Carolina, yet points to the GOP legislation as part of an enduring inter-party struggle concerning power distribution. While conceding such battles can appear unsightly, he stresses that these conflicts reflect shifting standards of political norms.
The Ballot Initiative Strategy Center’s executive director, Chris Melody Fields Figueredo, emphasizes that electoral engagement doesn’t end on Election Day. Activists must communicate to the public that attempts to sideline or overrule votes are direct challenges to representative democracy, and unfortunately, many of these efforts go unnoticed by the electorate.
Figueredo argues that for individuals who are working to secure basic necessities like food or shelter, the ‘concept of democracy feels very vague’. Nonetheless, it’s pivotal for voters to stay informed and vigilant against any attempts to undermine their democratic decision-making power.