Some state lawmakers are engaged in a tug-of-war for power with the people who elected them. In several states, lawmakers want to undo voter-approved ballot initiatives or make it harder to pass constitutional amendments.

The citizen activists, many of them heretofore strangers, had come together two days after the Missouri House passed legislation to overturn a voter-approved ballot initiative guaranteeing paid sick leave for workers and cost-of-living increases to the minimum wage.