
On Jan. 26, 2023, the Maine secretary of state announced that enough valid signatures were submitted for an initiative that would require voter approval of borrowing above $1 billion by state entities and electric cooperatives. The initiative is now certified to the Maine State Legislature. If the Legislature does not approve the initiative, it would…

On March 7, 2023, voters in Burlington, Vermont, will decide on at least seven ballot measures—five of which were placed on the ballot by the Burlington City Council, and two which were placed on the ballot by citizen initiative. The council-referred measures are as follows: A charter amendment that would allow non-citizens who are legal…

The Pennsylvania House of Representatives adjourned on January 24, 2023, affecting a package of three constitutional amendments that could have appeared on ballot for May 16, 2023. According to the Department of State, the Pennsylvania General Assembly needed to have the amendments passed by Friday, January 27, to appear on the May ballot. The deadline…

Voters in Oklahoma will decide on State Question 820, an initiative to legalize marijuana, on March 7, 2023. Voters in Ohio could decide on an initiative to legalize marijuana in Nov. 2023. Oklahomans for Sensible Marijuana Laws, which is leading the campaign in support of State Question 820, wanted the citizen-initiated measure on the 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…

In 2022, state legislators introduced at least 232 bills to change citizen-initiated ballot measure processes. Of the 232 legislative proposals, 23 (9.91%) were enacted into law. In 2021, for comparison, 226 bills were introduced and 36 (15.93%) were enacted. While the number of bills introduced in 2022 was higher than each year from 2014 to…

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…

The deadline to submit signatures for Initiatives to the Legislature in Washington (ITL) was Dec. 30, 2022. Initiatives to the Legislature is the name of indirect ballot initiatives in Washington. The Washington Secretary of State’s office confirmed to Ballotpedia on January 3 that signatures were not submitted for any of the 179 filed initiatives. If…

On Dec. 27, 2022, a campaign in Maine submitted signatures for an initiative that would require voter approval for borrowing $1 billion or more by state entities or electric cooperatives. The No Blank Checks campaign, which submitted 93,000 signatures to the secretary of state, opposes the Pine Tree Power Company initiative, which would create a…

There were 382 local ballot measures in 39 different states on the ballot for voters in the top 100 largest cities in the U.S. and state capitals. Of the measures, 348 (91.10%) were approved, and 34 (8.90%) were defeated. Of the 382 local ballot measures within the top 100 cities and state capitals in 2022,…