Impeding Citizen-Driven Initiatives Is Latest Election Law Fight

Voters in at least three states could decide this year to weaken their own voices at the ballot box.

Lawmakers in Arizona, Arkansas, and South Dakota have placed measures on primary or general election ballots to make it harder to pass initiatives or to more easily reverse voter-approved decisions.

“It is a death by 1,000 cuts,” said Kelly Hall, executive director of the Fairness Project, an organization that focuses on economic and social justice ballot measures. “Very rarely do we see an attack on our democracy that is an outright ban on voting or on ballot measures.”

In Arizona, ...