Initiatives and referendums in the United States

Citizens, or an organization, might start a popular initiative to gather a predetermined number of signatures to qualify the measure for the ballot.

The Progressive Era was a period marked by reforms aimed at breaking the concentrated power, or monopoly, of certain corporations and trusts.

[3] The proposal was developed by members of the city's Campaign Finance and Elections Working Group, spearheaded by Evan Ravitz and Steve Pomerance.

If the legislative body elects not to pass the proposed new law within a prescribed window of opportunity, the initiative must then be placed on the ballot.

By utilizing this initiative process, citizens can propose and vote on constitutional amendments directly, without need of legislative referral.

When a sufficient number of citizens have signed a petition requesting it, a proposed constitutional amendment is then put to the vote.

Of the 26 proposed petitions filed in the state of Florida in its 1994 general election, only three garnered sufficient support to be put to the vote.

[10] A May 2021 decision by the Mississippi Supreme Court nullified a voter-passed initiative that permitted medical marijuana in the state, with the 6–3 majority citing a fundamental flaw in the state's constitutional process that was viewed by media as effectively banning future use of indirect initiatives in the amendment process, barring a future constitutional amendment.

The United States Code requires national referendums before the authorization of marketing quotas for certain agricultural products including wheat, maize, milk, and rice.

[26] Yet another criticism is that as the number of required signatures has risen in tandem with populations, "initiatives have moved away from empowering the average citizen" and toward becoming a tool for well-heeled special interests to advance their agendas.

[27] John Diaz wrote in an editorial for the San Francisco Chronicle in 2008:[28] There is no big secret to the formula for manipulating California's initiative process.

Find a billionaire benefactor with the ideological motivation or crass self-interest to spend the $1-million plus to get something on the ballot with mercenary signature gatherers.

Prepare to spend a bundle on soft-focus television advertising and hope voters don't notice the fine print or the independent analyses of good-government groups or newspaper editorial boards ... Today, the initiative process is no longer the antidote to special interests and the moneyed class; it is their vehicle of choice to attempt to get their way without having to endure the scrutiny and compromise of the legislative process.In some cases, voters have passed initiatives that were subsequently repealed or drastically changed by the legislature.

For instance, legislation passed by the voters as an Arizonan medical cannabis initiative was subsequently gutted by the Arizona legislature.

For example, Colorado's Referendum O would require a two-thirds vote for the legislature to change statutes passed by the voters through initiatives, until five years after such passage.

[30] An objection not so much to the initial concept, but to its present implementations, is that signature challenges are becoming a political tool, with state officials and opposing groups litigating the process, rather than simply taking the issue fight to voters.

The Idaho Legislature in 2013 however increased the geographical requirements for putting an initiative on the ballot[32] after a trio of unpopular education laws ("Students Come First") were repealed by the voters.

Despite the new requirement of the signatures of 6% of the registered voters in 18 of Idaho's 35 legislative districts before May,[33] as of mid-April 2018 the drive to put the Medicaid gap before the voters on the November ballot (by way of their amending the state constitution, yea or nay)[34] was well on its way to gathering the prerequisite number of signatures in the prerequisite number of legislative districts, much to the surprise of pundits.

It reached its peak public approval rating in the 1930s in an effort to maintain American isolationism in the years before the Second World War.

Healthy Democracy, and a similar organization in Washington State, proposed a Citizens' Initiative Review process.

Since 2009, Healthy Democracy has led efforts to develop and refine the Citizens' Initiative Review process for use by Oregon voters.

States that allow initiated constitutional amendments
States that allow legislatively referred and direct initiative statutes, or legislatively referred and direct initiated constitutional amendments, and referendums.
States that allow legislatively referred and indirect initiative statutes, or legislatively referred and direct initiated constitutional amendments, and referendums. (Michigan, Nevada, and Ohio)
Illinois allows legislatively referred state statutes, or legislatively referred and direct initiated constitutional amendments.
Florida allows legislatively referred and direct initiated constitutional amendments.
States and federal district that allow initiated statutes
Massachusetts allows legislatively referred and indirect initiative statutes, legislatively referred and indirect initiated constitutional amendments, and referendums, with the specific initiative petition term used for all directly voted initiatives.
States that allow legislatively referred, indirect, and direct initiative statutes, or legislatively referred constitutional amendments, and referendums. (Utah and Washington)
Idaho allows direct initiative statutes, or legislatively referred constitutional amendments, and referendums.
States that allow indirect initiative statutes, or legislatively referred constitutional amendments, and referendums. (Alaska, Maine, and Wyoming. Maine also allows legislatively-referred state statutes)
Washington, D.C., allows legislatively referred amendments to its charter, direct initiative statutes, and referendums.
States that allow referendums
States that allow legislatively referred state statutes, or legislatively referred constitutional amendments, and referendums. (Maryland and New Mexico)
States that allow legislative referral only
Kentucky allows legislatively referred state statutes and legislatively-referred constitutional amendments.
States that allow legislatively referred constitutional amendments only. 1
Delaware allows legislatively referred state statutes only.
1 Mississippi technically would allow indirect initiated constitutional amendments, but this process is currently obsolete.
Medicaid for Idaho