Democrats hope listing measure to establish right to abortion on ballot will boost turnout in battleground state

Arizona voters will decide this November whether to add abortion rights into their state constitution, a prospect that could turbocharge voter turnout in a critical battleground state in the 2024 election.

Late Monday, the Arizona secretary of state’s office announced that it had validated an estimated 577,971 signatures in support of a ballot measure, the Arizona For Abortion Access Act, to establish a constitutional right to abortion in the state.

On X, the office called the measure “the largest petition effort in Arizona history”. The measure will be listed on the ballot as Proposition 139.

  • NatakuNox@lemmy.world
    32·
    2 months ago

    Every state should be required to put abortion on the ballot this year. (if a direct vote hadn’t happened since the overturning of Roe.) States with trigger laws shouldn’t be allowed to implement decades old laws that were passed by a old and dying generation.

    • Maggoty@lemmy.world
      5·
      2 months ago

      In Arizona the trigger law was over a century old. The Governor and AG publicly refused to enforce it and endorsed this ballot measure.

      Arizona truly is a purple state these days. I just hope they repair the damage the Republicans did under Brewer and Ducey.

    • andrewta@lemmy.world
      41·
      2 months ago

      I agree it should be on the ballot in EVERY state. Simple question should abortion be legal?

      Yes -legal no restrictions

      No - illegal no exceptions

    • AquaTofana@lemmy.world
      2·
      2 months ago

      I fucking wish every state could. Texas law makes it pretty much impossible to get abortion access on the ballot. Abbott and crew knew exactly what they were kicking off when they signed their “heartbeat bill” pre RvW reversal. They knew they were laying thw groundwork to turn women into brood mares.

      Our ballot initiatives need to come from our legislature itself, and then the voters get to say “Yeah I like that”, or “Nah not about it”.

      “For Texans to gain a direct say in changing these policies, the GOP-run Texas Legislature would need to pass a proposed constitutional amendment, which voters would then need to approve. (This yay-or-nay procedure is the only statewide policy-making power that regular Texans currently enjoy; voters weighed in on 14 such proposals from the Legislature Tuesday). One reason the Lege doesn’t want to give voters the initiative is fairly obvious: It would mean relinquishing some power—and giving interest groups a way to pass laws without lining elected officials’ pockets.”

      https://www.texasstandard.org/stories/the-reason-texans-cant-vote-on-abortion-and-weed/

  • ccunning@lemmy.world
    4·
    2 months ago

    Will ballot initiatives like these have any notable effect on turnout in one direction or the other?

    I believe Florida also has a similar ballot initiative; I don’t know about any other states.

    • randon31415@lemmy.world
      13·
      2 months ago

      Here is the list

      The only one in doubt of making it on the ballot is in Arkansas where the secretary of state is pulling out all the stops to invalidate the payed canvassers signatures.

    • Maggoty@lemmy.world
      2·
      2 months ago

      In Arizona it’s going to blow up the numbers. They had to fight to repeal an 1864 law and now it’s defaulted to a no exceptions 15 week law. So yeah, it’s a big deal in Arizona and likely to give the Democrats a boost in statewide offices. The state legislature is still hopelessly gerrymandered though.