Author

Kristen Smith

Kristen Smith is an associate editor at Ballotpedia. Contact us at editor@ballotpedia.org.

Voters approve of 71% of the 99 statewide constitutional amendments on the ballot in 2022

By Kristen Smith
In 2022 elections, Ballot measures
December 16, 2022 at 10:45 AM

From 2006 through 2022, a total of 1,139 constitutional amendments were proposed and put before voters. Of this total, voters approved 819 proposed changes to state constitutions. Every state but Delaware requires voters to ratify proposed state constitutional amendments.

There are four ways that proposed constitutional amendments can be proposed and put on the ballot in most states:

  • Through legislatively referred constitutional amendments.
  • Through initiated constitutional amendments put on the ballot through a citizen signature petition. Eighteen states allow this method of amendment.
  • Through constitutional conventions. In some states, automatic ballot referrals allow voters to decide at regular intervals whether to hold a convention.
  • In Florida, there is a commission-referred amendment process.

In 2022, voters in 28 states decided on 99 constitutional amendments, of which, 70 (70.71%) were approved and 29 (29.29%) were defeated.

Of the constitutional amendments, 88 were referred to the ballot by state legislatures, and 11 were put on the ballot through citizen initiative petitions. The approval rate of referred amendments was 70.70% and the approval rate for initiated amendments was 72.72%.

In Alabama, voters ratified a recompiled and updated state constitution, the Constitution of Alabama of 2022. The constitution ratification question is not counted as a constitutional amendment, but the 11 amendments that were added to the new constitution in the May and November elections are counted.

Louisiana and Texas had the highest number of proposed constitutional amendments from 2006 through 2022. In total, Louisiana had 119 amendments on the ballot in that time period and Texas had 82. Texas and Louisiana do not allow amendments initiated by voters.

While Texas and Louisiana lead the country in proposed constitutional amendments from 2006 through 2022, Delaware had zero proposed constitutional amendments on the ballot during this period. Massachusetts had one constitutional amendment on the ballot, which was approved in 2022. Alaska had two, one appearing on the ballot in 2010 and the other appearing on the ballot in 2016.

During odd-numbered years, an average of 21 constitutional amendments are on the ballot, of which an average of 17 (81.10%) are approved.

During even-numbered years, an average of 107 constitutional amendments are on the ballot, of which, an average of 76 (70.32%) are approved.



Three new members to join the Dane County Board of Supervisors

By Kristen Smith
In Local
June 7, 2019 at 5:31 PM
A special general election was held on June 4 in Wisconsin to fill three seats on the Dane County Board of Supervisors. Elizabeth Doyle (District 1), Kristen Audet (District 17), and Ann DeGarmo (District 33) were elected to the board. Doyle won her race unopposed, while the other two each faced a challenger.
 
Three candidates participated in the District 17 primary on May 7, which narrowed the field to the top two candidates. With only one candidate filing in District 1 and two in District 33, those primaries were canceled.
 
Dane County also held regular elections on April 2 for two seats on the Dane County Board of Supervisors as well as a seat on the Dane County Circuit Court. All three of those races were won unopposed by the incumbent.
 
Dane County was home to 516,284 residents in 2014, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. The county contains Wisconsin’s capital, Madison.
 
Ballotpedia covers municipal elections for the 100 largest cities by population in the nation, and 59 of those cities are holding elections in 2019.
 


Federal Magistrate Judge Brooke Wells retires

By Kristen Smith
In Federal
June 4, 2019 at 12:01 AM
Federal Magistrate Judge Brooke Wells retired at the expiration of her term on June 3, 2019. Wells was originally appointed to the position on June 4, 2003. She earned both her undergraduate degree and Juris Doctor degree from the University of Utah, graduating from the university’s S.J. Quinney College of Law in 1977. She became an assistant U.S. attorney in 1994.
 
The United States District Court for the District of Utah—based in Salt Lake City—is one of 94 United States district courts. The court contains five seats, two of which are currently vacant. This total does not include senior judges or magistrate judges. Federal magistrate judges are not appointed by the president and do not serve life terms. Instead, magistrate judges are assigned duties by the district judges in the district in which they serve. Full-time magistrate judges serve for renewable terms of eight years.
 
The district court announced earlier this year that Cecilia Romero would fill the vacancy created by Wells’ retirement. Like Wells, Romero also received her J.D. from the University of Utah S.J. Quinney College of Law. Her previous experience includes serving as a civil litigator and working as a partner at the law firm Holland & Hart.
 


Three Select Board members retained in Maine recall

By Kristen Smith
In Local
May 12, 2019 at 9:35 PM
An election took place on May 9, 2019, in Ogunquit, Maine, in an attempt to recall three members of the town’s Select Board. Board Chairman Charles Waite, Selectwoman Madeline Mooney, and Selectman Bob Winn all retained their seats. They were retained with 51.75%, 51.61%, and 55.53% of the vote, respectively.
 
Recall organizers began the recall process after the three board members voted last October to uphold the termination of the town’s former fire chief, Mark O’Brien. Waite, Mooney, and Winn filed a lawsuit to prevent the recall effort from going to a vote, but York County Superior Court Judge John O’Neil lifted a temporary stay and permitted the election to move forward.
 
Recall elections for local elected officials are permitted in some—but not all—jurisdictions in Maine. These laws are documented in local charters and ordinances in cities and towns throughout the state. A total of 39 states have provisions allowing for recall of elected officials at the state or local level.
 
So far, Ballotpedia has identified 41 recall efforts taking place in 2019. This includes six recalls for state legislators, one for a state executive, seven for school board members, one at the county level, 23 at the city level, and three for special districts.
 


State minimum wage levels vary from $5 to $14 per hour

By Kristen Smith
In Uncategorized
April 23, 2019 at 8:07 PM
Voters approved two statewide ballot measures in 2018 pertaining to minimum wages. Arkansas Issue 5 was approved, incrementally raising the minimum wage in Arkansas from $8.50 to $11 per hour by 2021. Missouri Proposition B was also approved, increasing the state’s minimum wage each year from $7.85 up to $12 per hour in 2023.
 
The federal minimum wage is currently $7.25 per hour. Georgia and Wyoming are the only two states with minimum wages below the federal level, making the federal minimum wage operative in those states. Another 19 states have state minimums at $7.25, matching the federal level. The other 29 states and Washington, D.C., all have minimum wages above the federal level. Thirteen of those states have wages above $10.00 per hour. Statewide minimum wage laws range from $5.15 per hour in Georgia and Wyoming up to $14.00 per hour in Washington, D.C.
 
Overall, minimum wages increased in 20 states and Washington, D.C., in 2018. Some of these changes took place due to ballot measures, while others took place due to state legislation. Minimum wages will also increase in 21 states and Washington, D.C., in 2019. The average increase for these 21 states is $0.55.
 
Proponents of increased minimum wages in Florida and Nevada are aiming to get measures on the ballot in 2020. Supporters of Florida’s minimum wage measure need to collect 766,200 valid signatures by February 1, 2020, to get their measure on the ballot. In Nevada, a majority vote is required in two successive sessions of the Nevada State Legislature to place an amendment on the ballot. Legislators passed Senate Joint Resolution 6 in 2017 and need to pass it again in their 2019 legislative session in order to place it on the ballot in 2020.
 


SCOTUS hears arguments on vulgar trademarks and the First Amendment

By Kristen Smith
In Federal
April 15, 2019 at 1:52 PM
On April 15, 2019, the U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments in Iancu v. Brunetti.
 
Erik Brunetti tried registering a trademark for his clothing brand but was denied by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, which said that the trademark violated the Lanham Act. The act states that a trademark can be refused when it “consists of or comprises immoral, deceptive, or scandalous matter.”
 
The Trademark Trial and Appeal Board agreed with the office’s initial decision not to grant the trademark. However, the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit found that denying Brunetti’s trademark violated his First Amendment right to free speech.
 
The director of the United States Patent and Trademark Office appealed this decision, and the U.S. Supreme Court agreed to hear the case.
 
The Supreme Court also heard arguments in Emulex Corp. v. Varjabedian on the same day. Iancu v. Brunetti is one of five cases from the Federal Circuit that will be heard during the Supreme Court’s October 2018-2019 term. During the term, the court will hear a total of 75 cases.
 


43 states prohibit abortion at specific stages of pregnancy

By Kristen Smith
In Uncategorized
April 8, 2019 at 9:11 PM
A total of 43 states prohibit abortions beginning at specific stages of pregnancy. This includes 17 states that prohibit abortions beginning at the stage of fetal viability and 15 states that prohibit abortions beginning at 20 weeks post-fertilization. Seven states do not prohibit abortions in any form.
 
Two abortion-related ballot measures passed in 2018: Alabama Amendment 2 and West Virginia Amendment 1.
 
Alabama Amendment 2 amended the state constitution, declaring that the state’s policy is to support “the sanctity of unborn life and the rights of unborn children, including the right to life.” This amendment was cited in a February 2019 wrongful death lawsuit. A county probate judge ruled that an Alabama resident could file a lawsuit on behalf of an unborn fetus given that a fetus was defined by the Alabama Constitution as a person with legal rights.
 
West Virginia Amendment 1 amended the state constitution to declare that “nothing in this Constitution secures or protects a right to abortion or requires the funding of abortion.” This same language was also used in Alabama’s amendment.
 
Alabama Amendment 2 and West Virginia Amendment 1 were referred to the ballot by the state legislatures. Also in 2018, Oregon voters defeated a citizen initiative that would have prohibited public funds from being spent on abortions in Oregon, except when determined to be medically necessary or required by federal law.
 
The Alabama and West Virginia measures both followed language initially used in an approved 2014 measure: Tennessee Amendment 1. Two abortion-related measures with different proposed constitutional language were rejected in Colorado and North Dakota, respectively. The Colorado measure would have included unborn human beings under the definition of person and child in the Colorado criminal code. The North Dakota measure would have added language to the state constitution guaranteeing a right to life at every stage of human development.
 


Incumbents seek re-election in 75% of Oregon school board races

By Kristen Smith
In Local
April 1, 2019 at 9:26 PM
School board candidates in Oregon had to file by March 21 to appear on the 2019 ballot. Ballotpedia is covering elections in eight Oregon school districts in 2019. A total of 28 seats will be up for election in these eight districts. This represents just over half of the 54 total school board seats in these districts.
 
General elections will take place on May 21. Incumbents are seeking re-election in 21 of the 28 seats (75%) up for election. School board members in Oregon serve four-year terms, and each school board can have a total of five or seven members. If the school district has a resident population of more than 300,000, the school board must have seven members.
 
Ballotpedia covers the 200 largest school districts in the nation in addition to any districts overlapping with the 100 largest cities by population in the United States. Oregon is one of 23 states within this scope that are holding school board elections in 2019. Ballotpedia is covering 515 school board seat elections across 181 school districts this year.
 


Three-vote margin decides runoff candidates in Atlanta special election

By Kristen Smith
In Local
March 25, 2019 at 9:35 AM
A special election for the District 3 seat on the Atlanta City Council in Georgia took place on March 19, 2019.
 
Nine candidates appeared on the ballot. Results were certified on March 22, showing Byron Amos and Antonio Brown as the top two vote recipients. Third-place finisher Greg Clay finished three votes behind Brown, 293 to 296, which allows him to request a recount. Following the recount, the top two candidates will advance to a runoff election scheduled for April 16, 2019.
 
Amos previously served on the Atlanta school board from 2011 to 2019. Brown is the CEO of LVL XIII, a men’s clothing business.
 
The special election was triggered after the former incumbent, Ivory Lee Young Jr., passed away in November 2018. Young had been a member of the city council since 2002.
 
The Atlanta City Council is made up of 16 members, including a council president. Twelve members are elected by the city’s 12 districts, while three other members and the council president are elected at large.
 


Candidate filing deadline passes for Denver’s 2019 municipal elections

By Kristen Smith
In Local
March 19, 2019 at 10:05 PM
Candidates for Denver mayor and city council had to file by Thursday, March 14, in order to make the ballot for the general election on May 7, 2019. In races where no candidate wins a majority of the vote, a runoff election will be held on June 4, 2019.
 
Denver’s current mayor, Michael Hancock, is seeking a third term in office. Hancock became mayor in 2011 after serving on the Denver City Council from 2004-2011. Hancock is running alongside five other candidates in the nonpartisan race: Lisa Calderón, Stephan Evans, Jamie Giellis, Kalyn Heffernan, and Penfield Tate.
 
Mayors in Denver serve four-year terms and can serve up to three terms (12 years) in office. As the city’s chief executive, the mayor is responsible for proposing a budget, signing legislation into law, appointing departmental directors, and overseeing the city’s day-to-day operations.
 
Denver uses a strong mayor-council form of government, meaning that the mayor is the city’s chief executive while the council is the city’s primary legislative body. Of the largest 100 cities in the country, 47 use a strong mayor system, 46 use a council-manager system, six use hybrid systems, and one uses a city commission.
 
Citizens in Denver will also cast votes for city auditor, city clerk and recorder, and 13 seats on the Denver City Council.
 
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