Direct Democracy

Voters in more than half of the states in America have a right to Direct Democracy.

This means when voters feel their elected representatives are not respecting their ideas, they can go directly to other voters to pass or reject a law or amend or reject an amendment to their state constitution.

This is a powerful tool for working people in a state.

Sadly, voters in Kansas do not have the right for an initiated statute (putting a law directly before voters to enact or disapprove), or a constitutional amendment (changing the Kansas Constitution).

For example, in 2018 Missouri lawmakers were out of touch with working people in their state, and decided to bully Right To Work is Wrong into law.

Voters have the Direct Democracy rights in Missouri and they took the law directly to the voters and asked them if they agreed or disagreed with lawmakers on the Right to Work is Wrong law.

Right to Work (is Wrong) because it is a deceptive phrase trying to mask that it is really an effort to bust unions, harm workers, reduce wages and benefits, reduce safety on the job, and take away your voice as a worker in your workplace.

Missouri voters rightly saw through the misleading idea and overwhelmingly voted to reject right to work is wrong in their state by a 67.5 to 32.5 percent margin. 

This was a thrilling victory, but Missouri is not alone. 

Workers in states that have Direct Democracy rights have gone directly to voters when their elected representatives have passed laws or proposed amendments that go against the will of the people of the state.

Let’s talk about a tale of two states and collective bargaining rights.

In 2011, Gov. John Kasich in Ohio and Gov. Scott Walker in Wisconsin went after collective bargaining rights for public employees in their respective states.

Walker proposed Wisconsin Act 10 and Kasich backed Senate Bill 5 in Ohio.

In both states, thousands of voters went to the Statehouse to hold rallies opposing the measures while standing up for workers’ rights.

Despite the public outcry and opposition, Walker and Kasich each lobbied their lawmakers to bully the bad ideas into law within the first three months they were in office.

In Wisconsin, a state that does not have the Direct Democracy right for voters to go directly to other voters, Act 10 was signed into law by Walker, and public employees lost their collective bargaining rights.

In Ohio, a union of unions, We Are Ohio, formed and collected a historic number of signatures – 1,298,301 – in 90 days to place Senate Bill 5 directly before voters in November, 2011.

Voters overwhelmingly rejected Senate Bill 5 by a 62-38 percent margin.

In essence, Ohio voters vetoed Senate BIll 5.

Voters in Kansas should have the right of Direct Democracy.

We should be able to go directly to other voters when elected leaders are clearly out of step with our will and try to impose anti-worker, anti-family, anti-Kansas ideas on the rest of us.