Over the past two years, governors and state legislatures around the nation have used an array of tools to overturn, delay, diminish or pre-emptively declare unconstitutional a variety of initiatives approved by the same voters who put them in office. Those moves follow a rise in efforts by residents to enact their own legislation, in a growing battle over who will make laws — legislators or voters.
In 2016, 71 initiatives were brought forward by voters; 46 were approved, and legislatures changed or sought to alter nearly one-quarter of those. Sixty-five more measures are expected to appear on ballots next month.