Reporting on Ballot Measures
The Purposefully Confusing World of Ballot Measures
Wait…what?
When Americans go to the polls in November, they will be faced with dozens of ballot measures, in 41 states.
Many of them are totally confusing…ON PURPOSE.
Who would do that?….Take a guess.
Your job is to explain:
What the measures mean
What their impact would be
How they came to be
Why the people who wrote the measures made them so confusing
Why your state doesn't have a law prohibiting confusing ballot measures
Story Ideas
Write about the history of confusing ballot measures in your state.
Write about ballot measures around the country: Is your state the only one confused?
Write a feature about the authors of your confusing ballot measures. Ask them questions like: Are you trying to confuse people?
Write about ballot measures that codify measures already codified. Ask: Why? Why? Why?
RESOURCES:
National database for ballot measures
Read this before you cover any ballot measures
More background on this year’s ballot measures
Also In the News
The reason more people don’t flee before a hurricane hits: money
These Christian Nationalist bros want JD Vance to remake America
Five takeaways about Trump, Biden, and foreign policy from Bob Woodward’s new book 'War’
We’re Listening To
‘If You Can Keep It’: America's Many Ballot Measures
Comic Relief
If You Like What You Are Reading:
Please share Reporting Right on your social media feeds.
Reach out for help at ReportingRight@googlegroups.com.
Tell your fellow reporters to subscribe.
See You Next Week!
Our Staff
Executive Editor Kyle Spencer
Managing Editor Christen Gall
Our Board of Advisors
Alex Aronson, executive director of Court Accountability
David Armiak, research director for the Center for Media and Democracy
Connor Gibson, founder of Grassrootbeer Investigations
Maurice Cunningham, retired associate professor of political science at the University of Massachusetts at Boston and author of Dark Money and The Politics of School Privatization.
Reed Galen, co-founder of The Lincoln Project
Isaac Kamola, associate professor of political science at Trinity College, founder of Faculty First Responders and co-author of Free Speech and Koch Money, Manufacturing a Campus Culture War
Nancy MacLean, William H. Chafe distinguished professor of history and public policy at Duke University and author of Democracy in Chains: The Deep History of the Radical Right’s Stealth Plan for America
Ralph Wilson, founder of the Corporate Genome Project and co-author of Free Speech and Koch Money, Manufacturing a Campus Culture War
Copyright (C) 2024. All rights reserved.
Want to change how you receive these emails?
You can subscribe, update your preferences, or unsubscribe.