As of May 2, 2023, seven statewide measures have been certified for the ballot in four states for elections in 2023. That’s the same as the average number (7) certified at this point in other odd-numbered years from 2011 to 2021.
For 2024, 32 statewide measures have been certified in 16 states. That’s six more measures than the average number certified at this point from 2010 to 2022.
Here’s an update on the latest ballot measure activity.
One new measure was certified for the 2023 ballot last week:
Ten states are considering legislation related to ballot collection, or ballot harvesting, while three states have enacted legislation on the topic so far in 2023. In 2022, seven states enacted bills while 15 others considered legislation. The number of bills and states considering ballot collection measures is smaller in 2023 than last year.
Most legislation introduced this year makes small changes to existing laws, although several states are considering more substantial changes. Active, bipartisan-sponsored bills in Rhode Island and Wyoming, two states that do not currently specify whether someone may return ballots on behalf of another voter, would add restrictions to ballot collection. Elsewhere, Republican-sponsored bills in three states currently allowing voters to choose someone to return their ballot (Nebraska, Oregon, and Virginia) would narrow or limit the authorized individuals who may return another voter’s ballot.
Eight of the 12 bills in 2023 legislative sessions were sponsored by Republican legislators, two were sponsored by Democrats, and two had bipartisan sponsorship.
Mississippi, New Mexico and South Dakota have enacted legislation related to ballot collection.
In Mississippi, Republican-sponsored SB2358 creates new penalties for an existing ban on third-party ballot collection.
In New Mexico, Democratic-sponsored SB180 expands the list of persons authorized to return another voter’s absentee/mail-in ballot as part of a larger package of election modifications. Existing law prohibits anyone not an immediate family member from collecting and delivering a ballot. The bill adds domestic partners, grandchildren, grandparents, or persons “with whom the voter has a continuing personal relationship” to the definition of “immediate family.”
In South Dakota, Republican-sponsored HB165 requires election officials to “keep a record of the authorized messenger requesting an absentee ballot to be delivered to another voter.” In South Dakota, an authorized messenger may return another voter’s absentee ballot.
Iowa and South Carolina were the only states to make significant changes to their ballot collection laws in 2022 legislative sessions.
In Iowa, both SF413 and SF568 restricted ballot collection to “an individual who lives in the same household as the registered voter, the registered voter’s immediate family member,” or an individual serving as a caretaker or registered delivery agent for a blind or otherwise disabled voter.
In South Carolina, S0108 instituted a photo-ID requirement for an individual authorized to return another voters’ ballot and limited the number and prohibited anyone from returning more than five ballots in addition to their own.
Also last year, Florida increased penalties for illegal ballot possession from a misdemeanor to a felony. Oklahoma added a prohibition on [d]istributing an absentee ballot application or request to a voter using the official letterhead of a candidate or elected official” to an existing ballot harvesting ban.
Of the 22 states that currently have a Republican trifecta, 11 states specify or otherwise limit who may return another voter’s absentee ballot, while four others do not have any law related to ballot collection. Of the 17 Democratic trifecta states, three specify or otherwise limit who may collect and return absentee ballots, while five states’ statutes do not reference ballot collection.
Voters in East Baton Rouge Consolidated School District No. 1 will decide on four property tax renewal measures on March 25.
In total, approval of the four measures would renew property tax levies of 18.33 mills ($1,833 per $100,000 of a home’s assessed value) for 10 years:
Proposition 1: Renew a 6.50 mill property tax ($650 per $100,000 of assessed value) to fund public school operations
Proposition 2: Renew a 7.19 mill property tax ($719 per $100,000 of assessed value) to fund public school employees’ salaries and benefits
Proposition 3: Renew a 2.78 mill property tax ($278 per $100,000 of assessed value) to fund the employment of additional teachers for purposes of maintaining a lower pupil-to-teacher ratio
Proposition 4: Renew a 1.86 mill property tax ($186 per $100,000 of assessed value) to fund employees’ salaries and benefits
The East Baton Rouge Parish School System said without the renewed mill levies, the school district would receive 41% less property tax revenue over the next 10 years.
In Louisiana, polls are open from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m.
As of March 7, 2023, five statewide measures have been certified for the ballot in three states for elections in 2023. That’s the same as the average number certified at this point in other odd-numbered years from 2011 to 2021.
For 2024, 16 statewide measures have been certified in five states. That’s double the average number certified at this point from 2010 to 2022.
Here’s an update on the latest ballot measure activity.
Four new measures were certified for the ballot last week:
From 2011 to 2021, the average number of statewide ballot measures certified in an odd-numbered year was 33. By this time during odd-numbered years from 2011 through 2021, an average of five statewide measures had been certified for the ballot.
On Feb. 21, 2023, the Maine secretary of state announced that enough valid signatures were submitted for the “Right to Repair Act” initiative, allowing it to be certified to the Maine State Legislature.
Out of the 83,252 signatures submitted by the Maine Automotive Right to Repair Committee on Jan. 19, 2023, 74,686 of the signatures were found to be valid. This met the 67,682 minimum valid signature requirement to be certified to the legislature.
The initiative will now await action from the legislature. In Maine, a citizen initiative can only appear on the ballot as an indirect initiative. The initiative goes to the ballot if the legislature rejects the initiative or does not take action by the end of the session. If the legislature passes the initiative, and the governor signs it, the initiative becomes law.
The initiative would allow car owners and independent repair facilities to have the same access to onboard diagnostic systems and wireless data that manufacturers and approved repair facilities have access to. According to the Autocare Association, 50% of cars transmitted vehicle data wirelessly and directly only to vehicle manufacturers in 2021, while 95% of new vehicles sold globally will likely have this connectivity in 2030.
Tim Winkeler, president and CEO of VIP Tires and Service and one of the members of the initiative campaign, said, “Unfortunately, many of these newest vehicles, that wireless data is fed automatically back to the car manufacturers and is not available to independent shops like ourselves. So that’s all that we are asking for is a level playing field so that independent repair shops can have access to the same data as the car manufacturers and their network of dealerships has.”
The Alliance for Automotive Innovation (AAI), an organization that has opposed the initiative, said that it was unnecessary.
“Mainers already can have their car repaired by any repair shop they choose,” AAI said, “And all the information needed to diagnose and repair a vehicle today is also already made available to all vehicle repair shops. But the ballot initiative does pose a real cybersecurity and privacy threat to Maine’s drivers.”
There were no measures on the Maine ballot in 2022. The last indirect initiative to appear on the ballot was in 2021, when voters approved an initiative to prohibit the construction of electric transmission lines in the Upper Kennebec Region.
If the state legislature rejects or does not take action on the submitted initiatives, they will go to Maine voters at the election on Nov. 7, 2023.
In 2022, there were 572 local ballot measures on six different election dates in California. Voters approved 396 (69%) of these measures and rejected 176 (31%). Out of these measures, 470 of them were on the November 8, 2022, ballot.
There were 147 fewer local ballot measures than in the previous even-year election in 2020. In 2020, there were 719 local measures on the ballot in California; in 2018, there were 726 local measures; and in 2016, there were 832 measures. This is a 25% decrease of the average number of measures during the last three even-year election cycles.
Out of California’s 58 counties, 54 of them had local measures on the ballot in 2022. Los Angeles County, with 97 local measures, had the greatest amount of local measures. For the other counties, the number of measures ranged from zero in four counties (Glenn County, Modoc County, Sierra County, and Tehama County) to 27 in Marin County.
The 2022 local ballot measures in California ranged by topic. Of the 572 measures, 249 measures were related to taxes; 142 were related to bonds and budgets; 103 were related to government and elections; 40 were related to housing and zoning; eight were related to marijuana; three were related to business; three were related to wages; and there were 24 other miscellaneous measures.
Taxes constituted the highest percentage of these measures, making up 44% of the measures on the local ballot in California. Of the 249 measures related to taxes: 70 measures concerned sales taxes; 67 measures concerned parcel taxes; 36 measures concerned hotel taxes; 28 measures concerned marijuana taxes; 11 measures concerned business taxes; 10 measures concerned property taxes; and 8 measures concerned utility taxes.
Of the 70 sales taxes, 44 were approved and 26 were defeated. Of the 67 parcel taxes, which are a form of special property tax, 38 were approved and 29 were defeated.
In addition, there were 123 local school bond measures on the ballot in California, making up 21% of all the local ballot measures on the 2022 ballot in California. Eighty-seven were approved and 36 were defeated. The 2022 elections had the lowest number of local school bond measures on the ballot since 2010. In 2020, the previous even-numbered election year, there were 182 local school bond measures on the ballot, 92 that were approved and 90 that were defeated.
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 as the complexity of an idea in a text, are not reflected in readability scores.
Between 2017 and 2022, the ballot measure with the lowest Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level score was Florida Amendment 13 with a score of 1, which suggests that one year of formal education was needed to understand the ballot title. The ballot title stated: “Ends dog racing.” It was written by a state board. In 2018, Proposition 13 was approved with 69% of the vote, and it prohibited wagering on live dog races.
The following table includes the five measures with the lowest title grade levels between 2017 and 2022. Three were approved, and two were defeated.
The ballot measure with the highest title grade level was Colorado Proposition EE with a score of 76, which suggests that 76 years of formal education was needed to understand the ballot title. A score this high implies that a text is very difficult to understand. It was 186 words long and was written by the state legislature. In 2020, Proposition EE was approved with 68% of the vote. It created a tax on nicotine products such as e-cigarettes; increased cigarette and tobacco taxes; set minimum cigarette prices; and dedicated revenues to various health and education programs.
The following table includes the five measures with the highest ballot title grade levels between 2017 and 2022. Two were approved, and three were defeated.
Voters in San Francisco decided on 14 local ballot measures on Nov. 8. Ten were approved and four were defeated.
Four were citizen initiatives, of which, one was approved and three were defeated. The city’s board of supervisors referred 10 of the measures to the ballot, of which 9 were approved and one was defeated.
The San Francisco Department of Elections certified election results on December 1, 2022. Of San Francisco’s 497,561 registered voters, ballots were cast by 310,071 voters, meaning voter turnout was 62.32%.
Some specific measures included:
Proposition H, which was approved, changed elections for mayor, sheriff, district attorney, city attorney, and treasurer from odd-numbered years to November of presidential election years. It also changed the signature requirements for city ballot initiatives from 5% of votes cast for the mayor to 2% of registered voters.
Proposition L, which was approved, continues an existing one-half cent sales tax through 2053 for transportation funding and allows the Transportation Authority to issue up to $1.91 billion in bonds for transportation projects. A two-thirds (66.67 percent) supermajority vote is required for approval of this measure.
Proposition M, which was approved, allows the city to tax owners of vacant residential units in buildings with three or more units if the units have been vacant for more than 182 days in a year. The rate would be between $2,500–5,000 per vacant unit, continuing through 2053, and the revenue would be dedicated to rent subsidies and certain housing entities.
On some topics, voters decided measures with opposing provisions. For example, Proposition D, which was defeated, would have expedited the approval of certain housing projects and removed the Board of Supervisors’ approval as a requirement for certain housing projects using city property or city financing. Proposition E, which was approved, expedited the approval of certain housing projects and continued requiring the Board of Supervisors’ approval for affordable housing projects using city property or city financing.
Voters also decided to keep JFK Drive closed to cars and reserved for recreational use after competing measures appeared on the ballot.
San Francisco adopted the initiative and referendum process in 1898, more than a decade before California authorized it statewide. Ballot measures can be put before San Francisco voters in one of three ways: (1) the city council may refer them, (2) through a signature petition drive for an initiative, which proposes a new law, or (3) via a referendum, which puts a law that the city council passed before voters.
San Francisco voters decided on seven local measures on June 7, 2022, approving five and rejecting two. In November 2020, voters approved 12 of the 13 measures that appeared on the ballot. From 2010 through 2022, San Francisco voters decided on 158 local ballot measures—an average of 12.1 per year, including odd and even-numbered election years. Voters approved 109 (69%) and defeated 49 (31%).
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. The average grade level for ballot summaries was 18 years of education.
Ballotpedia’s readability report analyzes 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). A readability score produces a score equivalent to the estimated number of years of U.S. education required to understand a text. Measurements used in calculating readability scores include the number of syllables, words, and sentences in a text. Other factors, such as the complexity of an idea in a text, are not reflected in readability scores.
Here are some highlights from the annual report:
Title and summary grades In 2022, the measure with the highest grade level score was Kentucky Amendment 1 with a title grade level of 64. The average ballot title grade for all measures in a single state averaged together ranged from 7 in Iowa to 44 in Kentucky.
Thirty-six (36) measures had ballot summaries with a grade level score greater than the ballot title, with differences ranging from 1 year to 16 years.
Citizen-initiated measures received an average title grade of 17 years of education, and referred measures received an average title grade of 20 years. The average ballot title grade was highest for ballot titles written by initiative proponents (21) and state boards (20). The three automatically referred constitutional convention questions, which take their ballot titles directly from the state constitution, had the lowest title grade by author at 9.
Word count The average ballot title word count was 66 words. The ballot measure with the longest ballot title was Tennessee Constitutional Amendment 2, with 456 words. The ballot measure with the shortest ballot title was Florida Amendment 2, which would abolish the state’s Constitution Revision Commission, with five words.
Historical readability scores
Ballotpedia has conducted an annual readability report since 2017. Between 2017 and 2022, the average title grade was 18 years of education. The year with the lowest ballot title grade was 2019 with 15 years of education, and the years with the highest were 2017 and 2020 with 20 years of education. The average ballot summary grade was lower than the ballot title grade for every year except 2019, where both were 15 years of education.
In 2022, ballot initiative campaigns spent $118.29 million to collect signatures for 29 initiatives in 12 states. The average cost-per-required-signature (CPRS) in 2022 was $12.70, an increase from $8.09 in 2020, $6.52 in 2018, and $6.93 in 2016.
On November 8, voters in 37 states will decide 132 statewide ballot measures, of which, 30 were placed on the ballot through successful initiative petition drives.
Note: Ballotpedia was unable to calculate signature gathering costs for South Dakota Amendment D due to how expenditures are reported on the state’s campaign finance website. Ballotpedia contacted the sponsoring campaign, South Dakotans Decide Healthcare. As this data is unavailable, South Dakota Amendment D is excluded from the report.
An initiative is a proposed law that people collect signatures for to put on the ballot for a statewide vote. Signature requirements such as the number of signatures required, maximum circulation periods, and other requirements vary by state.
Campaigns spend funds to collect signatures, hire signature-gathering companies, utilize unpaid volunteers, or use a mix of both. States have different initiative signature requirements and different population sizes, resulting in varied signature drive costs across states.
Ballotpedia uses two methods to measure the cost of a citizen-initiated ballot measure petition drive:
Total cost: the total money spent on gathering the required signatures to put an initiative on the ballot
Cost-per-required signature (CPRS): the total cost divided by the number of signatures required to qualify the measure for the ballot
CPRS measures the costs based on the number of signatures required. CPRS allows for comparisons of signature costs within a state and between states. If a campaign spends $1 million on its petition drive and the state’s signature requirement is 100,000, the CPRS is $10.00. In other words, the campaign spent $10.00 per required signature to qualify the initiative for the ballot.
The number of citizen initiatives that qualified for the even-numbered year ballot decreased 61% from 2016 to 2022, with 76 initiatives appearing on the ballot in 2016 and 30 initiatives appearing on the ballot in 2022. While there was a decrease in the number of initiatives appearing on the ballot, the cumulative cost of signature gathering increased over this period.
The average total petition drive cost for 2022 was $4.08 million, an increase of 297% compared to 2016, when the average petition drive cost was $1.03 million. In 2020, the average total petition cost was $2.06 million. In 2018, the average total cost was $1.13 million.
In 2022, the measure with the highest CPRS was Arizona Proposition 209. Sponsors of the measure, Arizonans Fed Up With Failing Healthcare, hired Fieldworks LLC to collect signatures for the petition to qualify this measure for the ballot. A total of $6.05 million was spent to collect the 237,645 valid signatures required to put this measure before voters, resulting in a total cost per required signature (CPRS) of $25.44.
Ballotpedia identified 15 petition companies used by initiative campaigns in 2022. Advanced Micro Targeting was the most-hired petition company leading to successful signature drives in 2022, with campaigns from five states (Arizona, Arkansas, Nebraska, Nevada, and North Dakota) qualifying initiatives for the ballot using the company’s signature-gathering services.
