(CNN)While Democrats in Congress have had many of their progressive plans thwarted this term, left-leaning advocates in multiple states are hoping to advance their causes at the ballot box.
Among the numerous initiatives on the ballot Tuesday are a host of measures related to health care and finances. Voters will decide whether to expand Medicaid in South Dakota, increase the minimum wage in Nebraska and Nevada, raise taxes on the wealthy in California and Massachusetts and address medical debt in Arizona.
Americans are having trouble making ends meet as inequality increases, said Kelly Hall, executive director of The Fairness Project, which is backing a number of the measures. The ballot initiatives are aimed at easing the burden for working people.
"That help is not coming from federal lawmakers. It is not coming from their state politicians," she said. "And so whether it's on minimum wage or expanding health care or limiting debt collection practices, people are starting to take those very basic kitchen-table issues into their own hands."
Here's a sampling of those ballot measures:
South Dakota voters will decide whether to broaden Medicaid to roughly 42,500 low-income residents starting in 2023.
It's the seventh such effort to expand Medicaid in Republican-led states, which began with the approval of Maine voters in 2017. Ballot initiatives were also successful in Missouri, Oklahoma, Idaho, Nebraska and Utah. All were backed by The...
The lawsuit alleges the CCRB’s online database, 50-a.org, unfairly harms officers by listing serious accusations including sexual misconduct, racial profiling and making false official statements ...