An increase in turnout among Democrats and independents — and a surprising shift in Republican-leaning counties — contributed to the overwhelming support of abortion rights last week in traditionally conservative Kansas, according to an AP analysis.
“I was surprised for sure,” said Ruth Tisdale, executive director of the Advice and Aid Pregnancy Center. “I thought that it would be a closer outcome either way. I didn’t have a strong sense of whether it would pass or not, but I thought that it would be closer, you know, 51 to 49 kind of thing. ... It was very sad.”It wasn’t just the amendment’s margin of defeat that jolted the political consciousness.
That effort helped attract an unusual variable in Kansas primaries: independent voters. That group is eligible to vote on referenda but not for candidates running in any party primary. But campaign ads emphasized that “no affiliation” voters could indeed vote on the abortion question. It worked: Around 184,000 more votes were cast for the abortion amendment than voted for governor, a likely barometer to measure their portion of the electorate.
“It was such a beacon of light in this moment,” said Heather Shumaker, director of state abortion access at the National Women’s Law Center, of the Kansas vote. “I think there is energy around ballot measures for the foreseeable future.” But getting measures on ballots without going through a state legislature can be difficult. The Ballot Initiative Strategy Center, which advises liberal groups on initiative campaigns, advises the process could take three years.In half of the states, including Kansas, only lawmakers can put propositions on the statewide ballot.
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