NRF Policy Lab Report Warns that Gerrymandered Legislatures are Undermining Citizen-Led Ballot Initiatives

Washington, D.C. –  Today, the National Redistricting Foundation (NRF)’s Policy Lab released a new report detailing how lawmakers in gerrymandered legislative chambers across the country are erecting barriers to voter-led ballot initiatives and referendums.

The report, called How Partisan Gerrymandering Limits Access to Direct Democracy, identifies a troubling pattern of politicians entrenching their power through gerrymandering themselves into safe districts, effectively insulating them from the majority of voters, then advancing new laws that make it harder for voters to advance referendums or ballot initiatives. The combination is shutting American citizens in these states out of their government and locking in minority rule.

“By raising passage thresholds, criminalizing petition drives, and burying grassroots movements in bureaucratic red tape, politicians from gerrymandered districts are limiting ways for voters to hold their government accountable,” said Marina Jenkins, Executive Director of the National Redistricting Foundation (NRF). “Without the means to express their displeasure or roll back policies they are unhappy with, politicians have no accountability to the voters they are supposed to represent.

“What’s happening in places like Florida, which is poised to begin a mid-decade redraw any day now, is a sharp contrast to states like Virginia and California, which, while also redrawing their maps mid-decade, have asked voters to weigh in on the changes. In too many states, politicians are circumventing voters and rewriting the rules. Government of the people, by the people, is being replaced by minority rule. Federal reforms are needed to reverse this downward spiral,” Jenkins concluded.

The report highlights several examples of this trend from five heavily gerrymandered states: 

Florida: Lawmakers passed HB1205, which imposed harsh costs, restrictions, and criminal penalties on voter-led amendment efforts. This resulted in several grassroots campaigns being delayed or even abandoned, meaning that not a single citizen-led initiative petition qualified to go before the voters on the 2026 ballot.  

Utah: After voters approved Proposition 4 to create an independent redistricting commission, legislators repealed it and drew their own maps. The Utah Supreme Court intervened to preserve key elements of voter-approved reform, but lawmakers have not let up on their efforts to limit future citizen-led reforms.

Ohio: Legislators repeatedly ignored court rulings striking down gerrymandered maps and passed laws restricting local democracy. In 2024, they used deceptive ballot language to defeat a citizen-led redistricting reform, despite voters previously rejecting similar power grabs.

South Dakota: Lawmakers pursued or enacted measures requiring ballot initiatives to receive 60% approval, rather than just a simple majority. These unusually high thresholds would make voter-led reforms significantly harder to pass and make grassroots success virtually impossible.

Arkansas: State lawmakers enacted new onerous requirements targeting citizen petition drives, including requiring canvassers to issue fraud warnings, requiring signers to show photo ID, and imposing burdensome affidavit rules. In 2025, a federal court partially blocked these laws, citing likely First Amendment violations—underscoring their suppressive intent.

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