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Ballot initiatives, also commonly known as ballot measures or referendums, are questions placed before voters on local or statewide ballots. The ballot initiative process gives people the ability to propose constitutional amendments or statutes (depending on the state) and collect signatures to place those proposals directly before voters.
Ballot Measures overview. Ballotpedia's encyclopedic coverage of ballot measures features initiative and/or veto referendums in twenty-six states, including measure filing, circulation and voter decision.
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Ballot measures, also known as propositions or initiatives, are specific questions or issues that are put directly to voters on their ballot. Voters decide to pass or fail ballot measures through direct democracy - by simply voting yes or no. They cover a wide range of topics, such as laws, policies, tax increases or even constitutional amendments.
- Influencing Voter Choices
- What Voters Know About Ballot Initiatives
- Insights on Why Voters Skip Parts of Their Ballot
- Local Newspapers and Voter Behavior
- Additional Resources
Predicting Vote Choice and Election Outcomes from Ballot Wording: The Role of Processing Fluency in Low Information Direct Democracy ElectionsHillary C. Shulman; et al. Political Communication, June 2022. When voters have little to no information about a ballot initiative, they’re more likely to say “yes” when it’s written in simple, easy-to-unders...
Direct Democracy, Educative Effects, and the (Mis)Measurement of Ballot Measure AwarenessJay Barth, Craig M. Burnett and Janine Parry. Political Behavior, 2020. The purpose of this study was to determine whether traditional methods of measuring voters’ knowledge of ballot measures — primarily asking them “yes” or “no” questions — have been accurate...
Ballot Position, Choice Fatigue, and Voter BehaviourNed Augenblick and Scott Nicholson. The Review of Economic Studies, April 2016. If ballot measures had appeared at the top of election ballots in San Diego County, California instead of at the bottom, 24 measures that failed between 1992 and 2002 would have passed, according to this analysis. Ball...
Newspapers and Political Participation: The Relationship Between Ballot Rolloff and Local Newspaper CirculationChristopher Chapp and Peter Aehl. Newspaper Research Journal, May 2021. This study suggests voters living in U.S. communities with a local newspaper complete a greater portion of their ballots. When researchers examined nationwide voting p...
Initiative & Referendum Institute at the University of Southern California studies ballot measures. It also maintains several databases of ballot measures. To access the data, contact the institute...The National Conference of State Legislatures maintains a Statewide Ballot Measures Database, searchable by state, topic, keyword, year, status or primary sponsor.Ballotpedia provides a variety of informationon ballot measure trends and individual ballot measures, including campaign fundraising totals, ballot readability scores and links to analyses and poll...The nonprofit research organization OpenSecrets tracks fundraising by campaignssupporting or opposing statewide ballot measures.Mar 21, 2024 · Ballot measures, sometimes called initiatives or referendums, have been a staple of our civic life since at least the 17 th century when New England town meetings used an early form of direct...
What is a ballot measure? What is “direct democracy”? How do ballot measures wind up on my ballot? What happens after ballot measures are passed? Which states allow citizen-initiated ballot measures? Have ballot measures actually succeeded in changing policies? Are ballot measures partisan?
Ballot measures, also referred to as ballot initiatives and referendums (I&R), provide citizens the opportunity to discuss and vote on policy issues at the local level and state level. Using this process, in 24 states citizens can bring an issue to a public vote by gathering a pre-determined number of signatures from registered voters.
