What Are Citizen-Initiated Ballot Measures?

For more than a century, citizen-initiated ballot measures—sometimes called ballot initiatives, initiative and referendum (I&R), or direct democracy¹—have given voters in many states a direct path to policymaking. Initiatives allow citizens to propose laws, amend constitutions, or repeal legislation, placing these actions on the ballot for a public vote.

Unlike legislatively referred measures (measures placed on the ballot by the state legislature), which exist in all 50 states, only 26 states provide for some form of statewide citizen-led ballot measure.² The details vary: Twenty-one allow statutory initiatives, 18 permit constitutional amendments, and only 15 allow both. Twenty-three states allow veto referendums, which allow citizens to overturn recently passed laws, but not proactive lawmaking. Maryland and New Mexico allow veto referendums only. Illinois, Mississippi, and Florida provide for initiated constitutional amendments but not referendums. Though technically still in the state constitution, Mississippi’s initiative process has been inactive since a 2021 state supreme court decision.³

There are two primary models of statewide ballot initiatives in use today: (1) direct, which go directly to the ballot, and (2) indirect, which are first submitted to the legislature. Though the mechanics of indirect initiated statutes and amendments vary across states, typically, lawmakers can adopt the citizens’ proposal outright, ignore it (sending it to voters to approve or reject in the next election), or propose a competing measure to appear on the ballot alongside the initiated measure.⁴

In each of the 25 active initiative states, getting a measure on the ballot requires clearing several procedural hurdles (see Figure 1). These hurdles include requiring the collection of a certain number of signatures within a fixed period, often with rules about geographic distribution to ensure statewide support. Signature thresholds range from as low as 2 percent of voters in North Dakota to as high as 15 percent in Wyoming.⁵

After an initiative’s passage, implementation can still be contested. Some measures are executed smoothly; others face resistance from elected officials, especially when the measure challenges special interests or social values held by a powerful legislative faction, or it necessitates significant new funding. Even initiatives that receive overwhelming voter support can still face bureaucratic, legislative, or judicial obstruction, as was the case during voter-led efforts to expand Medicaid and marijuana legalization.⁶

Despite these variations, all initiative processes share a democratic promise: They give people a way to act when representative institutions will not. In doing so, they reaffirm that democracy is not just about people choosing representatives. It’s also about reserving the right to make and shape policy when those representatives fail to legislate in the interests of the majority of their constituents. As Teddy Roosevelt said about initiatives in a speech to the 1912 Ohio constitutional convention, they “should be used not to destroy representative government, but to correct it whenever it becomes misrepresentative.”⁷