Some states have increased the number of votes required to pass ballot initiatives, while others expanded the spread of required petitioner signatures across the state to even bring it to the ballot. In other cases, legislators have put up roadblocks to organizer funding or even increased the required font size of the policy and limited the size of the paper the petition has to be printed on.
More than 125 bills have been introduced into 31 state legislatures to amend or change the referendum or ballot initiative process in 2021, according to data compiled by Ballotpedia for NBC News. So far 19 have passed and 31 were rejected, died in the legislative process or were vetoed.
Many of these new Republican-supported policies or other roadblocks are now being challenged in court, most notably in Florida, Idaho, South Dakota, Missouri and Mississippi.