Category: Ballot measures

On July 24, the 2019 New York City Charter Revision Commission gave final approval to 19 proposals grouped into five separate ballot questions. Voters will decide in favor or against all proposals grouped within a question together. The questions must now be sent to the city clerk before August 5 for inclusion on the November…

Signature deadlines for pending ballot measures in Colorado: 2020 veto referendum petitions: 124,632 valid signatures due by August 1, 2019 2019 ballot initiative petitions: 124,632 valid signatures due by August 5, 2019 The number of required signatures increased 26.54% for Colorado ballot measures following the 2018 elections due to higher voter turnout. Initiative signature requirements…

Congressional Review Act (CRA) resolutions introduced in both houses of Congress on July 16 aim to allow states and local governments to let taxpayers donate more to charity in exchange for paying less in state and local taxes. The resolutions would repeal an Internal Revenue Service (IRS) regulation designed to prevent states and local governments…

On Monday, the Pima County Recorder certified that enough signatures submitted for the Tucson sanctuary city initiative were valid to qualify it for the ballot. The initiative now goes to the city council. If the mayor and city council do not approve it, the initiative goes onto the November 2019 ballot. If the mayor and…

In April 2018, when Maine had a divided government, the group Maine Death with Dignity launched a ballot initiative to legalize physician-assisted death in the state. Maine Death with Dignity collected around 72,000 signatures—about 9,000 more than required—for the ballot initiative but decided against submitting signatures after Gov. Janet Mills (D), elected the previous November,…

Four new statewide ballot measures were certified for 2019 and 2020 ballots in the past 30 days.   Three statewide measures were certified for 2019 in Maine, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania. Here’s what they would do: Maine: allow legislation to let persons with physical disabilities that prevent them from signing their own names use an…

On July 11, 2019, Florida Citizen Voters, sponsors of Florida Initiative 18-14, announced having collected more than 1.5 million signatures to qualify the initiative for the 2020 ballot. To qualify for the ballot, 766,200 valid signatures must be submitted by February 1, 2020.   This measure would amend the Florida Constitution to state that only…

San Francisco Superior Court Judge Ethan Schulman ruled Friday that two measures (both called Proposition C) on the San Francisco ballot in June and November of 2018 were properly certified as approved by city officials. Schulman ruled that the measures proposing tax increases for specific purposes required a simple majority for approval because they were…

On July 3, 2019, proponents of an initiative to make Tucson the first sanctuary city in Arizona submitted 18,155 unverified signatures to election officials. They needed to collect 9,241 valid signatures by July 5, 2019, to qualify the initiative for the November general election ballot.   Submitted signatures must now be verified by election officials.…

In 2019, 14 states have approved 29 proposals changing laws governing ballot initiatives, veto referendums, referrals, local ballot measures, and recall.   Five approved proposals, however, were constitutional amendments requiring voter ratification in 2019 or 2020. Two additional bills were approved by the Idaho State Legislature, but the governor vetoed them. Five citizen-initiated measures directly…