A Mississippi Senate committee has passed a bill that would create a ballot initiative to replace the one voided by the state Supreme Court in 2021. What’s interesting, though, is that the existing bill, as presently written, would give the people less power than they used to have to force issues onto the ballot.
According to the Mississippi Today website, the bill’s language “simply lets voters make suggestions to legislators, who can later choose to alter the wishes of voters.”
As it now stands, the bill would allow the Legislature, by a two-thirds vote, to amend a citizen-submitted proposal before it went on a ballot for a referendum.
Questioned about this by two Democrats, Mississippi Today reported that the Republican author of the bill, Sen. Tyler McCaughn, R-Newton, confirmed that lawmakers would indeed be the gatekeeper for initiative proposals. He added that he would be willing to work with other senators as the bill moves forward.
A few things to note here. First, the Supreme Court tossed the initiative process because the law specified that voter signatures had to be gathered from Mississippi’s five congressional districts. The state now has only four. But after the court ruling, top state officials promised they’d revise the initiative law. Voters are still waiting.
Second, while the “legislative gatekeeper” element of the bill approved by the Senate committee is an unusual and frankly odd idea, it really is a non-starter if lawmakers are sincere about writing an honest voter initiative law.
If it is true, for example, that more Mississippians are coming around to the idea of expanding Medicaid, then it would be easy to get two-thirds of the Legislature to “amend” an initiative on this issue — since Republicans currently hold more than two-thirds of the seats in both the House and Senate. Basically, anything the majority doesn’t care for would be dead. Medical marijuana never would have been approved.
Third, any concerns that voters will overwhelm the ballot with citizen initiatives do not match the state’s three decades of experience with the law. Dozens of initiative proposals got introduced over those 30-plus years. But getting signatures from around the entire state is a daunting task. According to Mississippi Today, only seven proposals got the required number of signatures to get on the ballot. That’s just one initiative every four years.
Fourth, it is worth noting that the legislative process sometimes takes unusual turns. The committee’s bill may look totally different by the time the full Senate votes on it. Sometimes committee chairmen put things in a bill to make sure it passes, then remove them later on.
And finally, what’s all the fuss about? Who’s putting up initiative roadblocks? The prime suspect would have to be Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann or one of his Senate lieutenants. In 2022, an initiative bill died because Hosemann and a committee chairman wanted to double the number of voter signatures required. And now, also in the Senate, we get an initiative bill with “legislative gatekeepers.” In all candor, voters deserve better than that.
— Jack Ryan, McComb Enterprise-Journal
