The MS Senate killed a proposal Monday to restore a ballot initiative process, days after a 26-21 vote to pass a bill that would allow residents to put some policy proposals on statewide ballots.
JACKSON, Miss. — Mississippi legislators are unlikely to restore a ballot initiative process this year after a Senate chairman killed a proposal Monday. The move came days after the Senate voted 26-21 to pass a bill that would have allowed Mississippi residents to put some policy proposals on statewide ballots. But the bill needed another Senate debate and that never happened because Republican Sen.
Parker said last week that efforts to revive an initiative process were 'on life support' because of significant differences between the House and Senate. Republicans control both chambers. Starting in the 1990s, Mississippi had a process for people to put proposed state constitutional amendments on the ballot, requiring an equal number of signatures from each of the five congressional districts.
Parker and some other senators said they wanted to guard against out-of-state interests pouring money into Mississippi to get issues on the ballot. Both the House and Senate proposals would have banned initiatives to alter abortion laws. Legislators cited Mississippi's role in enacting a law that laid the groundwork for the U.S. Supreme Court to upend abortion rights nationwide.
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