A citizen-initiated ballot measure to establish an age limit for congressional members, sponsored by Retire Congress North Dakota, is on the ballot in North Dakota’s primary election on June 11, 2024. The ballot initiative, which is the first of its kind, would prohibit a person from being elected or appointed to the U.S. Senate or…
Oklahoma voters will join Iowa, Kentucky, Missouri, South Carolina, and Wisconsin voters in deciding on ballot questions to add language to their respective state constitutions to provide that only U.S. citizens can vote in elections. All six ballot questions were placed on the Nov. 2024 ballot by Republican-controlled state legislatures. Similar measures were on the…
Voters in three South Dakota counties will decide on June 4 whether to prohibit the use of automatic tabulating machines to count votes and require the hand-counting of ballots. In South Dakota, paper ballots are used in elections, and automatic tabulating machines or systems are permitted to count the paper ballots. South Dakota Canvassing organized…
For 2024, 110 statewide ballot measures have been certified for the ballot in 35 states, five more measures than the average (105) for this point in the election cycle from 2012 to 2022. The average number of statewide ballot measures certified for an even-numbered year during this period was 157. Here’s an update on the…
Campaign finance rules for ballot measures differ from those for candidate elections. “Referenda are held on issues, not candidates for public office,” wrote the U.S. Supreme Court in 1978 (First National Bank of Boston v. Bellotti). The court has held that spending on ballot measure campaigns is similar to issue advocacy in the lawmaking process.…
In South Dakota, a citizen-initiated constitutional amendment that would establish top-two primaries in the state was certified on May 21, 2024. Voters will decide on the initiative at the general election on Nov. 5. South Dakota Open Primaries, the campaign behind the initiative, submitted about 46,500 signatures on May 7. A random sample determined that…
Protect Patients Now, which is sponsored by the California Apartment Association, has qualified an initiative for the November ballot in California that would require entities defined as prescription drug price manipulators to spend at least 98% or more of their revenue earned from their national participation in the 340B program on direct patient care to…
Missouri voters will decide on a constitutional amendment that would allow for courts of justice to levy costs and fees in order to provide for salaries and benefits for law enforcement personnel. The amendment will be on the Nov. 5, 2024, ballot. The amendment was referred to the ballot by the Missouri State Legislature. For…
The Missouri State Legislature took the final vote on May 17 to send a constitutional amendment to voters this Nov. that would prohibit non-citizen voting and the use of ranked-choice voting (RCV) in elections. In November, Iowa, Kentucky, South Carolina, and Wisconsin, along with Missouri, will have measures on their ballots concerning citizenship voter requirements.…
In Nevada, a campaign supporting a ballot initiative to establish a constitutional right to an abortion submitted more than 200,000 signatures on May 20, 2024. If enough signatures are found valid, the initiative will appear on the ballot on Nov. 5, 2024. Voters in 12 states could see abortion measures on the ballot in 2024.…