"Republicans Lost Big on Abortion Ballot Measures. Now They’re Trying to Change the Rules" https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2022/11/republicans-abortion-ballot-measures-ohio "“They know voters don’t agree with them on the issues, so they are changing the rules of the game.”" seems republicans want to force their will on the people, rather then let the people decide
Dang, wish i could read the quoted article but it seems to be paywalled. That's capitalism for you I guess.
Republicans always do nowadays. If you don't like what the people do with the ballot, either keep the people away from the ballot, or the ballot further away from wherever its supposed to be counted, or just don't count it at all. Thats not the way Republicans used to do things, when they tried to get more people to want to do what they, as a party, wanted, with their ballot, but they have given up on that tactic.
You only need read the opening line of the story, to get the gist: IOW, your excuse seems dubious. Ohio Republicans are trying to make it harder for people to get any voter initiative, on the ballot. This, despite all the arguments from Republicans, that it should be the people of each state, who decide on their own state's abortion law. So, unless Republicans (who control the legislature) decide to ask the people, in a referendum-- they want to make it harder for people to actually put this issue on the ballot, to be voted on, specifically. This, of course, makes it seem that they are more interested in their own opinion, on this question, than in that of their constituents.
That Republican direction goes right along with their attempt to get the SC to OK political gerrymandering. Once again, if the people disagree, the ensure their voice is minimized. It's what is going on in our presidential elections, too. We get the movements to have red state governors be allowed to throw out the ballots. We get the stonewalling of movements to allow Washington, DC residents to have representation in Congress - even though there are more citizens in DC than there are in Wyoming or Vermont, and they each get TWO Senators as well as Representatives. We get objections to changing the electoral college, which has been instrumental in causing presidential candidates to lose even though they have a popular majority. We get the increasing violence aimed at defeating democracy. We get the wife of a Supreme Court justice blatantly working to push governors to cheat on our elections. NO Republican claim of allowing the voice of the people can possibly be considered legitimate.
The real truth of course is that anti abortion activism is highly unpopular among the average voter especially the independents and the republicans cannot win without them.
