Author: Victoria Antram
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Initiative to increase the vote threshold for new or increased taxes in California qualifies for the 2024 ballot
An initiated constitutional amendment to increase the vote threshold for new or increased state and local taxes has qualified for the Nov. 2024 ballot in California. On Feb. 2, the secretary of state reported that after a full check of signatures, the campaign had submitted 1,075,585 valid signatures exceeding the 997,139 valid signatures required to…
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California voters will decide on a referendum to repeal a law governing fast-food working conditions in 2024
On Jan. 24, the California secretary of state announced that a veto referendum filed to repeal Assembly Bill 257 (AB 257) had qualified for the November 2024 ballot. AB 257 would enact the Fast Food Accountability and Standards Recovery Act (FAST Recovery Act), which was passed along party lines and signed into law on Sept.…
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Wisconsin State Legislature sends three ballot questions to the April ballot
Wisconsin voters will be deciding on three ballot questions—two constitutional measures and one advisory question—on April 4. The constitutional measures relate to the conditions of release for an accused individual before conviction and cash bail. The two questions were referred to the ballot with the final passage of Senate Joint Resolution 2 (SJR 2) on…
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How is the Texas Constitution amended?
The Texas State Legislature convened its 2023 regular legislative session on Jan. 10. The legislature can refer constitutional amendments, in the form of statewide ballot measures, to the ballot in odd-numbered and even-numbered years. However, Texas is one of four states with biennial legislative sessions that meet in odd-numbered years; therefore, most amendments have been…
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160 ballot initiatives have been filed for the 2023 election cycle as of Jan. 1
As of Jan. 1, proponents have filed 160 ballot initiatives in four states for elections in 2023. Washington leads with 151 ballot initiatives. The three other states include Colorado (one initiative), Maine (six initiatives), and Ohio (two initiatives). Between 2011 and 2021, an average of 161 ballot initiatives were filed for odd-numbered-year ballots. The highest…
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Campaign behind a California oil and gas veto referendum submits nearly 1 million signatures
On Dec. 13, California Independent Petroleum Association (CIPA), which is leading the Stop the Energy Shutdown campaign, announced that the campaign to place a veto referendum to repeal recently passed oil and gas regulations on the 2024 ballot had collected over 978,000 signatures. The referendum would repeal Senate Bill 1137 (SB 1137), which would prohibit…
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The lowest and the highest readability scores for 2017-2022 ballot measures
Ballotpedia conducts an annual readability report analyzing what level of education voters would need to understand the ballot titles and summaries of statewide ballot measures using Flesch Reading Ease (FRE) and Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level (FKGL). Measurements used in calculating readability scores include the number of syllables, words, and sentences in a text. Other factors, such…
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Campaign to repeal California fast food wage and labor regulation law submits more than 1 million signatures
On Dec. 5, Save Local Restaurants submitted more than 1 million signatures to the California secretary of state to place a veto referendum on the 2024 ballot that would repeal Assembly Bill 257 (AB 257). AB 257 would create a fast food council authorized to increase the minimum wage of workers in the fast-food industry…
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Closest and widest vote margins for state ballot measure elections in California
There were 23 state ballot measures decided by less than a percentage point in California between 1910 and 2022. The ballot measure with the closest vote margin percentage during that period was Proposition 74, which was defeated with a vote margin of 50.01% ‘No’ to 49.99% ‘Yes’ in 1988. The margin in absolute votes was…
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2022 statewide ballot measures written at graduate school reading level
The ballot language for the 140 statewide ballot measures on the ballot in 38 states in 2022 is written at an average reading level of 19 (graduate school reading level), up from 18 in 2021. Ballotpedia identified 66 measures with a ballot summary that was set to appear alongside the ballot question on the ballot.…