Democracy is literally on the ballot in these states
Democracy is literally on the ballot in these states
State supreme court, secretary of state, and ballot measures
State Supreme Court elections
State courts tend to be overlooked amid the politicization of the federal courts, yet often play a bigger role in protecting rights and liberties enshrined in state constitutions. This year’s state supreme court races are particularly important, with implications for post-Dobb’s reproductive rights and the next decade’s redistricting cycle.
Five seats on the all-Republican Alabama Supreme Court are up for election this November. Four are going to be filled by candidates running unopposed. All eyes are on the only contested seat: Chief Justice Tom Parker, who wrote the far-right Christian nationalist opinion endangering IVF in February, is retiring. The race to replace him is between Democrat Greg Griffin, an Alabama Circuit Court judge, and current Supreme Court Justice Sarah Stewart (R).
One seat on the Arkansas Supreme Court will be on the ballot next month. Two sitting justices—Karen Baker and Rhonda Wood, both conservatives—are in a runoff election for the chief justice position. The winning candidate must resign from their current seat, allowing Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders (R) to appoint a replacement.
Two justices on the all-Republican Arizona Supreme Court are up for retention election to serve another six years. Both justices—Clint Bolick and Kathryn King—signed onto the Court’s April opinion resurrecting an 1864 ban on abortion. If either loses the election, Democratic Gov. Katie Hobbs will appoint their replacement.
Three justices are running in retention elections on Colorado’s Supreme Court. The trio—Maria Berkenkotter, Brian Boatright, and Monica Márquez—were all appointed by Democratic governors. Márquez signed onto the Court’s December ruling barring Trump from appearing on the state’s ballot. Berkenkotter and Boatright dissented.
Two Florida justices who voted to uphold the state’s six-week abortion ban are up for retention election: Renatha Francis and Meredith Sasso, both appointed by Gov. Ron DeSantis (R). If either loses the election, DeSantis will choose their replacement. However, no judge has lost a retention election in Florida.
Kentucky Supreme Court Chief Justice Laurance VanMeter, a conservative, is retiring, leaving an open seat on the ballot. Unlike many other states, Kentucky does not hold statewide elections for justices. The court consists of seven justices, each elected from one of the seven appellate districts on a nonpartisan ballot. VanMeter’s seat is District 5, composed of Lexington and surrounding counties. In 2020, the district narrowly voted for Trump, but swung in Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear’s favor in 2023.
While the election is nonpartisan, the two candidates running to replace VanMeter can be broadly cast as more left-leaning and more right-leaning. Current Court of Appeals Judge Pamela Goodwine is a registered Independent with a long judicial career, has appeared at Democratic events, is endorsed by Gov. Beshear, and is supported by unions. Her opponent, lawyer Erin Izzo, has attended far-right political events and supports crisis pregnancy centers.
Two seats on Michigan’s Supreme Court are on the ballot next month—and the results could flip control to a GOP majority. Current Democratic Justice Kyra Harris Bolden is running in a special election to keep her seat after being appointed by Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D) last year. Republicans nominated Circuit Court Judge Patrick O’Grady to challenge her. Meanwhile, Republican Justice David Viviano is retiring, giving Democrats a chance to flip the seat and increase their 4-3 majority. Democrats nominated Kimberly Thomas, a law professor, for the position, and Republicans nominated state Rep. Andrew Fink.
If O’Grady and Fink both win their races, Republicans will again control Michigan’s Supreme Court.
Two appointees of Democratic Gov. Time Walz are running in contested races for re-election this year. Justice Natalie Hudson is being challenged by Stephen Emery, a self-described conservative who has promoted election-denier content. Justice Karl Procaccini, appointed by Walz last year, faces Trump supporter Matthew Hanson.
Two justices on Mississippi’s Supreme Court are running in contested elections. James Kitchens is one of three justices to dissent from the Court’s contentious 2021 ruling invalidating the state’s ballot initiative process. The legislature has since refused to rewrite the law to reinstate citizen-led direct democracy. Next month, Kitchens faces four challengers in a District 1 (including Jackson) election: attorney Abby Gale Robinson, attorney Bryon Carter, former state Court of Appeals Judge Ceola James, and Republican state Sen. Jenifer Branning. Of the four, James is the only challenger with judicial experience.
Justice Dawn Beam, who voted with the majority to nullify the initiative process, is facing attorney David Sullivan in the state’s southern District 2 election. While both describe themselves as conservatives, Sullivan has experience as a criminal defense lawyer and works with public defender’s offices in multiple counties, giving him an important perspective in a state with the highest incarceration rate in the nation.
Two justices on Montana’s Supreme Court are retiring, opening the door for conservatives to reign in a court that often rules against GOP priorities. For example, this year the court ruled that minors do not require parental permission to obtain abortion care and struck down a slate of voter suppression laws. The race to replace Chief Justice Mike McGrath is between Democratic-supported Jerry Lynch and Republican-supported Cory Swanson. The candidates running for Justice Dirk Sanefur’s seat are Katherine Bidegaray, backed by Democratic interests, and Dan Wilson, backed by Republicans.
Both McGrath and Sandfur are seen as liberal-leaning justices. The court will have a conservative-leaning majority if Swanson and Wilson win their elections next month.
North Carolina Justice Allison Riggs, one of only two Democrats left on the court, is up for re-election. If her challenger, Republican judge Jefferson Griffin, wins, Democrats will have very little chance to take back the majority before the end of the decade.
If there is any doubt about the significance of state supreme court elections, just look to North Carolina. Republicans took control of the court when they gained a 5-2 majority in 2022, wasting no time reversing past civil and voting rights rulings. In just two years, the conservative bloc has approved of GOP gerrymandering, upheld the state’s felony disenfranchisement law, and undermined laws prohibiting racial discrimination in jury selection.
Three seats on the Ohio Supreme Court are on the ballot this year as the GOP tries to consolidate its power. Two of three Democratic justices, Melody Stewart and Michael Donnelly, are up for re-election. Common Pleas Court Judge Megan (R) is challenging Donnelly while Justice Joe Deters (R) is stepping down from his seat in order to challenge Stewart. Two lower-court judges, Lisa Forbes (D) and Dan Hawkins (R), are running for the seat Deters is vacating.
Republicans currently hold a 4-3 majority on the court. The Ohio GOP is hoping that a recent law adding party labels to judicial races on ballots will give them an advantage in the state, which leans right.
Three justices on the Texas Supreme Court and three justices on the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals are running for re-election. Despite the scarcity of Democratic wins in the state, SCOTX Justices Jimmy Blacklock, John Devine, and Jane Bland may be vulnerable due to their votes in favor of the state’s extreme anti-abortion laws. Meanwhile, the Appellate races are clouded with unusual uncertainty after Attorney General Ken Paxton (R) helped oust the three incumbent judges in revenge for previous rulings against his office.
DaSean Jones (D) is challenging Blacklock, Christine Weems (D) is challenging Devine, and Bonnie Goldstein (D) is challenging Bland. In the Court of Criminal Appeals, Holly Taylor (D) is facing David Schenck (R), Nancy Mulder (D) is facing Gina Parker (R), and Chika Anyiam (D) is facing Lee Finley (R).
One seat is in contention on the Washington Supreme Court as Justice Susan Owens steps down due to mandatory retirement age. Attorney Sal Mungia and Judge Dave Larson advanced from the primary with 42% and 37% of the vote, respectively. Mungia is backed by Gov. Jay Inslee (D) and eight of the nine sitting justices. Larson, on the other hand, has failed to garner significant endorsements amid his criticism of the court as too progressive.
Secretary of State elections
Missouri: Far-right state Sen. Denny Hoskins is running against Democratic state Rep. Barbara Phifer to replace outgoing Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft (R). Hoskins has pledged to eliminate absentee voting and implement mandatory hand counting of ballots to “protect our elections from Chinese/Russian interference.” As a senator, Hoskins backed a bill to make it harder to pass citizen-led ballot initiatives—a trend among Republicans seeking to prevent the re-establishment of abortion rights.
Montana: Newspaper publisher Jesse Mullen (D) is challenging current Secretary of State Christi Jacobsen (R), who has backed voter suppression measures and undermined citizen-led ballot initiative measures.
Oregon: Current Secretary of State LaVonne Griffin-Valade (D) is not running for re-election. State Treasurer Tobias Read (D) is seeking to continue Oregon’s progressive voting policies while his opponent, state Sen. Dennis Linthicum, is campaigning to ban mail voting and investigate alleged voter fraud.
Vermont: Current Secretary of State Sarah Copeland Hanzas (D) is facing perennial Republican candidate H. Brooke Paige.
Washington: After over 50 years of Republican secretaries of state, Democrat Steve Hobbs won the office in a special election in 2022 (to complete the remainder of the previous secretary’s term). This year, Hobbs faces Republican Dale Whitaker, an accountant and former executive of a Spokane-based conservative organization.
West Virginia: Republican Kris Warner, the brother of outgoing Secretary of State Mac Warner, is running against Democrat Thornton Cooper. Despite the Warner’s embrace of election conspiracies and voter suppression tactics, the family seems sure to hold onto power in one of the Trumpiest states.
Not all states hold elections for their secretary of state; some instead are appointed by the governor or legislature. Electing people to these offices who support voting rights and ballot access is essential to ensure that they appoint a chief elections officer with the same values.
Delaware: The governor appoints a secretary of state. This year, the candidates for governor are Democrat Matt Meyer, who seeks to expand access to mail voting, and Republican House Minority Leader Michael Ramone, who opposes mail voting.
Maine: The legislature appoints a secretary of state. Republicans have a marginal shot at retaking control of the legislature. If they succeed, they will surely oust current Secretary of State Shenna Bellows for her decision to take Trump’s name off the state’s ballot earlier this year.
New Hampshire: The legislature appoints a secretary of state. If Democrats can win control of the state House and Senate, they could potentially replace current Republican Secretary of State David Scanlan. However, Scanlan was initially appointed with dozens of Democratic crossover votes, raising doubts that he would be replaced despite his support for voter suppression measures.
North Carolina: The state board of elections and the director of elections, not the secretary of state, conduct election administration in North Carolina. Last year, the Republican-controlled legislature gave themselves the power to appoint these positions. Unfortunately, there is little chance of Democrats retaking the legislature this year—but the party can take away the GOP’s supermajority, preventing them from overriding the governor’s veto.
Utah: The Lieutenant Governor performs the functions of secretary of state. Current Lt. Gov. Deidre Henderson (R) is running with Gov. Spencer Cox (R) for re-election. Their challengers, gubernatorial nominee Brian King (D) and Rebekah Cummings (D), a librarian, are unlikely to win the statewide race in Utah.
Ballot measures
Electoral systems
Voters in Colorado (Prop. 131), Idaho (Prop 1), Nevada (Q. 3), and Oregon (Meas. 117) will be considering ballot measures to establish ranked-choice voting for federal and state offices (and, in Idaho, certain local offices). Ranked-choice voting (RCV) allows voters to rank candidates by preference rather than casting a ballot for a single candidate.
In Alaska, voters will decide on Ballot Measure 2, an initiative to repeal RCV and open top-four primaries, returning the state to partisan primaries and first-past-the-post voting. Alaskans first approved RCV via ballot initiative in 2020 by roughly one percentage point, amounting to nearly 3,800 votes, and used the system for the first time in 2022. Groups who support repealing RCV argue that the method is “confusing” to voters and “disenfranchised” Republicans. Advocates for keeping RCV say that it gives voters more choices at the ballot box and leads to candidates with broader appeal.
Native American leaders in Alaska are organizing to defeat Ballot Measure 2, arguing that keeping RCV will lead to greater representation at the state and federal level. Rep. Mary Peltola (D) became the first Alaska Native member of Congress, defeating former Gov. Sarah Palin (R) and businessman Nick Begich (R), in the state’s 2022 RCV election.
The Republican-controlled Missouri legislature is asking voters to amend the state constitution to ban the use of ranked-choice voting for any election in the state. Lawmakers wrote the provision into Amendment 7, which includes a ban on non-citizen voting—something that is already illegal—in order to boost its chances of passing.
The legislatures of seven other states are also asking voters to approve constitutional amendments that ban state and local governments from allowing noncitizens to vote: Iowa, Idaho, Kentucky, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, and Wisconsin. These ballot measures are intended to advance the false narrative, pushed by Trump and other Republicans, that non-citizens are voting in U.S. elections in favor of Democrats. Politicians who push this lie are using it as an excuse to disenfranchise actual U.S. citizens, often with Spanish-sounding names, and to lay the groundwork to claim fraud if Trump loses the election.
Arizona voters will have a choice between two competing ballot measures: Proposition 140, a citizen-led initiative establishing open primaries and ranked-choice voting in general elections when three or more candidates advance, and Proposition 133, put on the ballot by the Republican-led legislature to require partisan primary elections.
Montanans will be voting on two potentially complementary citizen-led amendments. The first, CI-126, would establish top-four primaries for federal and state offices. The second, CI-127, would require that candidates for many state offices win a majority of the vote (i.e. over 50%) rather than a plurality. If CI-127 passes, the state legislature would need to create a law allowing for an electoral system with majority vote winners, like run-off elections or ranked-choice voting.
Voters in South Dakota will have the chance to approve Constitutional Amendment H to establish top-two primaries for federal, state, and certain local offices.
Other election measures
Ohioans will be voting on Issue 1, a measure to establish an independent citizen-led redistricting commission. The current commission, composed entirely of politicians, has refused to draw fair maps, instead running out the clock and counting on Republican judges to leave partisan gerrymanders in place. A vote in favor of Issue 1 would establish a 15-member panel of citizens split equally between Democrats, Republicans, and Independents to create maps that “correspond closely to the statewide partisan preferences” of voters.
Voters in Connecticut can approve of the “No-excuse Absentee Voting Amendment,” which would do exactly what it says: authorize the legislature to provide by law for every citizen to vote by mail.
Nevada voters will be faced with Question 7, a measure to require photo identification when voting in person and a drivers license or social security number when voting by mail.
The Republican-controlled Arizona legislature is asking voters to approve three anti-democratic amendments. Proposition 137 would end term limits for state supreme court justices and superior court judges, therefore also ending retention elections for justices and judges. Proposition 134 would make it more difficult for citizen-led initiatives to qualify for the ballot by establishing a signature distribution requirement. Finally, Proposition 136 would create new pathways for challenging proposed amendments and measures.
The Republican-controlled legislature in North Dakota is also asking voters to raise the bar for citizen-led initiatives to qualify for the ballot by (a) increasing the signature requirement and (b) mandating that a proposed constitutional initiative be approved twice—once on the primary ballot and again on the general election ballot.
And in Florida, the Republican-controlled legislature is asking voters to approve two election-related amendments. The first, Amendment 1, would make all school board elections partisan beginning in 2026. The second, Amendment 6, would repeal the provision of the Florida Constitution that provides public campaign financing to those running for statewide office.
Voters in Maine can vote for Question 1, which sets a $5,000 contribution limit to Super PACs.