AMY GOODMAN: This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org. I’m Amy Goodman, with Juan González.

Historic ballot measures enshrining the right to an abortion passed in seven states: Arizona, Colorado, Nevada, Montana, Maryland, New York and Missouri, where voters backed a measure in Missouri that will overturn one of the strictest abortion bans in the country that prohibits the procedure even in cases of rape and incest. Missouri was the first state to enact an abortion ban after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022. In Arizona, voters approved Prop 139 by a landslide, establishing a fundamental right to abortion and prohibiting state officials from restricting or banning abortion before 24 weeks of pregnancy.

Similar ballot proposals failed in three states: South Dakota, Nebraska and Florida, where a measure that would have rolled back the state’s six-week abortion ban fell just short of the 60% needed to pass. They changed the rules to have to require a supermajority. It got something like 57 to 58% of the vote.

In other ballot initiative news, Arizona voters passed a contested measure that would allow state and local law enforcement to arrest immigrants suspected of crossing the U.S.-Mexico border outside of ports of entry, while empowering state judges to order deportations. The measure, which creates a series of new state crimes targeting immigrants, is modeled after a Texas law, known as S.B. 4, currently under review by the Supreme Court.

Three ballot measures that would have legalized recreational use of marijuana in Florida, North Dakota and South Dakota failed.

In labor rights, Alaska and Missouri approved measures increasing the minimum wage. Both measures would require employers to provide sick leave, while establishing a minimum wage of $15 per hour. In California, voters have passed a so-called tough-on-crime ballot initiative that rolls back parts of a progressive law approved by voters in 2014, which downgraded several nonviolent crimes to misdemeanors. Prop 36 will make shoplifting a felony for repeat offenders and increase penalties for drug charges.

We go now to Chris Melody Fields Figueredo. She is executive director of the Ballot Initiative Strategy Center in D.C.

Can you talk about what passed, what didn’t, and what issues voters care about, Chris?

CHRIS MELODY FIELDS FIGUEREDO: Yeah. I mean, I think you gave a really great summary, Amy. And I think, really, it’s important for folks to know that the majority of Americans do support abortion rights and reproductive freedom, and that is some glimmer of hope for us to hold onto. Even in Florida, 57% of the vote, that’s the majority of Floridians who said no to the extreme abortion ban. And there was so much hard work and organizing by incredible organizations in that state, that has been doing that work for two years against all the odds, against the state, the governor, trying every single thing in their power to stop Amendment 4 in Florida.

And I think what we’re seeing across the country is similar, sort of these mixed results. But I think what we really have to focus on is the state work that lies ahead of us. You know, we did protect abortion rights. We did do really important things for workers with paid sick and raising the minimum wage in Massachusetts. It looks like the measure to allow unionization of workers from Uber and Lyft is going to be successful in Arizona. They actually stopped the state legislatively referred measure that would have made tip workers make less. And then it looks like we’re also good to be able — it’s looking good that we’re going to win these three marriage equality measures in California, Hawaii and Colorado. Still a little too early in some of the Western states.

So, you know, I think there is a lot of hope for us, and I think the deep work that is going to be really necessary is to look at the issues, look how people voted for those issues. Maybe they voted at a higher rate to support reproductive freedom than maybe some of the Senate candidates or even the president. So I think those numbers in the next couple of days, as we do deeper analysis, is really getting give us a path and a way forward and really thinking about what are the critical issues that people care about, what were the results, what worked, what didn’t work. And that’s going to build our path forward.

JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And, Chris, would you say that there’s been an increase in recent years in the use of ballot initiatives? And to what degree is it underappreciated in terms of a democratic check and balance by the people on the gridlock of government?

CHRIS MELODY FIELDS FIGUEREDO: Listen, we are living in a gerrymandered country, in many states. You think about Ohio, Florida, many states. You know, we have gerrymandered districts. People, grassroots organizations have turned, especially in Republican trifecta states, have turned to ballot measures to show that there is a different vision for their states, for their communities. We have been successful over the last several election cycles to pass progressive policy, from Medicaid expansion to redistricting, even though it did fail in Ohio this year. That is because of the Republican-controlled ballot title board that gave really confusing language. Voters were confused. They thought they were voting to end gerrymandering, and then they turned around and, because of the mis- and disinformation, realized that they should have voted yes for Issue 1.

So, it is an underappreciated tool, and we get — you know, obviously, I’ve been listening to the show today, and there’s so much focus on the federal election and federal offices and candidates. But I actually think these issues are showing us what people care about. And that is so important for us to think about of what we need to be talking to everyday people, going into communities, understanding them, because they are telling us a different path forward. And because we are resisting, we are winning on these progressive issues, they are trying to take that power away from us.

I think one of the highlights from last night is the fact that in Arizona and North Dakota, the state Legislatures referred ballot measures that would have made it harder for citizens to put issues on the ballot. Voters rejected that. And we’ve seen that time and time again, is voters like to take this power and this agency. They actually understand their communities sometimes better than, you know, the pundits and folks that, you know, do this for a living. They do. They understand their communities so well. And I think the work forward is also going to be defending direct democracy, making sure that the voter-approved measures around abortion and raising the minimum wage and sick leave — right? — that those are moving forward and implemented. And then we are going to look at a really tough state legislative cycle in states like Missouri, in states like Florida, in states like Ohio, where they are going to try to undermine the will of the people and try to take this powerful tool away from us, when we know this is actually how we stand up and fight back for our communities.

JUAN GONZÁLEZ: Could you talk about Proposition 131 in Colorado that failed? And this was considered a stealth ranked-choice voting initiative backed by dark money?

CHRIS MELODY FIELDS FIGUEREDO: You know, I think there is a lot of — you know, people are still trying to understand ranked-choice voting, open primaries, top two, top four. There’s still a lot of education that needs to be done. I mean, here in Washington, D.C., Initiative 83 looks at — passed, for ranked-choice voting and open primaries. I think there’s a lot of information that people don’t quite understand. I know that was true also in states like Nevada. But then you have a state like Missouri, you know, that voted yes to stop some of the ramifications of Citizens United.

And so, I think, ultimately, what we are going to have to do in the next couple of days is try to do this deeper analysis, not just the hot takes right now, not just looking at exit polls, but really looking at the city level, the county level, who turned out, why they turned out on these different issues and see what influenced them, to understand how we are going to organize moving forward and fight back.

AMY GOODMAN: Finally, we just have 10 seconds, but do you think the whole ballot initiative movement will change under the second Trump presidency, with increasing number of judges that he might appoint that would stop this kind of movement?

CHRIS MELODY FIELDS FIGUEREDO: Listen, we’ve always at BISC believed that this is a fight for our democracy. Every one of these issues are — like, one of the things I have said is the fight for reproductive freedom is the fight for democracy. And so, yes, we are going to have to look at the courts. We are going to have to look at the state legislatures. And that is now us, the people, that will go into state legislatures to fight back, to make sure that this tool is not taken away from us.

AMY GOODMAN: Chris, we’re going to have to leave it there, Chris Melody Fields Figueredo, executive director of the Ballot Initiative Strategy Center. And that does it for today’s two-hour election special. If you missed any hour, go to democracynow.org. Democracy Now! accepting applications for video news production. I’m Amy Goodman, with Juan González.