Mark Johnson, a Republican state senator in Arkansas, met signing people last year in the proposed voting measure to protect the state's abortion rights.

"They said it was about women's health," he recalled. "I said, 'Oh, really?' ... They didn't figure out what it was.

The abortion measures ended up not voting, but this year, Johnson and others in the state Republican-led legislature passed a bill that requires the title of the proposed voting measures to be either a petition or a signature or signature - the collector reads aloud.

The bill is one of several bills passed by Arkansas, creating new rules for efforts to obtain state voting measures. The rules also require petitions to display photo IDs and confirm that they know that fraud is a crime. And if they sign without doing so, the person who collected the signature could be charged with a crime.

Two countries allow citizens to come up with voting measures, and Republican lawmakers in Arkansas and other states are now passing new restrictions that they say will combat fraud in the process.

But opponents say these laws deprive a realistic way to solve problems that their legislators cannot solve.

“In time, it’s really a problem, with the ability to recruit people to be canvas people, have people sign petitions and have you sign as many people as you can,” said Bonnie Miller, president of the Arkansas Women Voters League. “This is one of the biggest and most serious laws they have passed.”

Miller's panel is suing state election officials for title reading requirements, which they say is unconstitutional. Her group feared they would have a "creepy effect," she said.

"Because who will use these rules to draw lots?" she said. “Then it has a chilling effect on people willing to sign these petitions because who wants to stand up and listen to this? And, there’s a good chance you’ll talk to someone who’s already reading the ballot title at home alone or who is very familiar with the subject.”

Miller said she believes Republicans are worried that efforts to take pro-abortion rights measures on the vote may resume because advocates were very close last time.

But, Johnson said, it is not to stop voters from taking action on the ballot.

"We don't want to take their rights away, but we want to protect them from the abuse process and confuse their special interests," he said.

Kelly Hall, executive director of the Fair Project, a group working to pass economic and social justice policies through voting measures, said she is seeing more state bills than ever before.

“This is definitely the number of attacks we’ve seen against citizens’ voting measures,” she said. “It doesn’t mean it’s brand new this year, but it’s going all out and coming out in a few different ways.”

While states like Arkansas are posing new restrictions for groups that collect signatures, Hall notes others are trying to raise the threshold for a measure to 60%.

Florida already has a higher bar. Last year, obvious Florida voters (57%) supported a measure to protect abortion in the state, but because that threshold did not pass.

"It's hard to vote even on the voting, and then it's hard to pass," said Letitia Harmon, director of policy and research at a social justice advocacy group called "Florida Rise." "But they've launched an attack on the voting initiative, and the governor attacked the voting initiative, which is one of his highest policy priorities."

Last week, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed Bill 1205, saying he would “fight petition fraud and prevent the abuse of special interests of our constitutional amendments.” This has caused legal challenges.

The bill requires people to show IDs before signing a petition, such as the law just enacted in Arkansas. It also prohibits people from collecting more than 25 signatures and signatures belonging to immediate family members. If a person collects more than this number, they may face criminal penalties.

Like Republican state Senator Jennifer Bradley of Florida, the measure aims to combat fraud.

"This is not a restrictive bill," Bradley said in the legislative debate. "It is a protection bill to ensure that our constitutional system is one of the integrity and that there is no fraud."

Fraud between signature collectors is not a new issue in elections. Experts say many of the issues are paid collectors. Some states also allow each signature instead of paying collectors by hour, which experts say helps with higher fraud rates.

But advocates say there are ways to solve fraud without making it harder for voters to have problems with voting.

“There are already some laws and regulations that make fraud a crime,” Harmon said.

State officials in Florida that investigate and prosecute election crimes have been arresting paid signature collectors in recent years. However, they asked lawmakers to make the rules more difficult.

Many of the fraud claims pointed out by Florida leaders are typical human errors and will now be subject to criminal penalties, Harmon said.

The Fair Project Hall said she believes the laws are a broader failure in the relationship with voters.

"Direct democracy should be an opportunity for voters to talk to politicians," she said. "'It's really what we want. You should listen to us." ... Instead, not only do we not solve these problems, but we will make it more difficult for voters. ”