By Cait Heiderman

The University of Maryland’s School of Public Health is preparing to release its biennial ballot initiative guide to help voters understand topics appearing on ballots across the country in November, including immigration, reproductive health, LGBTQ+ rights, health care funding and more.

Christine Schull, principal lecturer in SPH’s family science program, created this year’s guide as part of her Family and Health Policy class. 

Throughout the semester, her class of primarily graduate students use Ballotpedia to identify initiatives they believe are important for voters to understand during the current election cycle.

“Ballot initiatives are actually really important because there’s quite a bit of governing that happens at the state level that comes out of this ballot initiative process,” Schull said.

The guide is intended to provide voters with information about both sides of an issue, without pushing them toward a particular position. Each ballot initiative is broken down to explain the measure and what the effects of a yes or no vote are. 

“You have to have both sides of something so that you can make a carefully considered and measured decision,” Schull said. “I don’t think that another set of voices that are pushing voters in one direction or another is what we were looking to do here.”

Students researching the initiatives said they are focused on presenting information in neutral and accessible language. This approach is especially important for the eight LGBTQ+ initiatives in the guide, according to Maddie Kay, a second-year master’s student in medical anthropology.

“I’m using a lot more neutral language in this guide than many of those who are in support of these bills,” Kay said.

Kay also said the language used by supporters of the measures can be “inflammatory” and “transphobic.” 

Most of the LGBTQ+ ballot measures involve restrictions on transgender participation in sports or gender-affirming care, according to Kay. The guide will include measures that are taking place in Arizona, Colorado, Missouri, Nebraska, Washington and more.

Students are also examining reproductive health initiatives and health care funding measures. 

Following the Supreme Court’s 2022 decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, which overturned Roe v. Wade, there have been changes to abortion laws across the country.

The ballot guide will examine an Idaho measure that would establish privacy protections for reproductive health decisions, including abortion and in vitro fertilization, according to Kendall Opheikens, a first-year master’s student.

Sarah Salinger, a faculty assistant from the SPH’s Global, Environmental and Occupational Health Department, is researching a California measure that would place limits on how federally qualified health centers spend their funding.

The measure is an example of how ballot initiatives can address national policies at the state level, according to Salinger. 

“This is a way for citizens at the state level to try and combat policies that have passed nationally,” she said.

Beyond health initiatives, the class is also researching immigration measures. 

The guide will include information on ballot measures in states including Colorado, Arizona, South Dakota, West Virginia, Alaska, Arkansas and Kansas, according to Helen Obuna, a second-year Ph.D. student in the medical anthropology program. 

The guide will examine the potential effects of the immigration measures including laws on citizen status and deportation for individuals, families and the federal immigration system, Obuna said.

“You’re trying to grab as much information as possible so that you’re able to have both sides represented well,” she said.

Schull said another major focus of the guide is to make complex measures understandable through concise and visually appealing information. 

“People really value having things be easily digestible [and] graphically appealing,” Schull said. “We want the information quickly, and I think that’s what accessibility means to people now.”

Schull said the guide reflects a broader goal of encouraging people to engage in productive conversations during a time when “everything is very politically loaded.”.

“In these current times, the positions that people are taking on these ballot initiatives … lacks neutrality,” Schull said.

Schull said the purpose is to return to “a place where we can talk about these issues in ways that are a little more measured, more respectful and productive.”

Featured Image: The outside of the School of Public Health at the University of Maryland in College Park. Photo by Megan Tervo.