States Revisit Rules on Citizen Initiatives and Referendums

States Revisit Rules on Citizen Initiatives and Referendums

Many of the 90-plus bills introduced this year address the financing of ballot measure campaigns.

The South Dakota Capitol in Pierre. The state now requires ballots to disclose whether a measure was introduced by citizens or the Legislature. (Photo by The Power of Forever/Getty Images)

Citizen initiatives and referendums often feature hotly debated policies such as the minimum wage, marijuana legalization, abortion and voter ID. First used in South Dakota in 1898, initiatives and referendums-also known as I&Rs-let voters directly participate in the policymaking process. Twenty-six states, Washington, D.C., and the Virgin Islands offer an I&R process, and 40 to 80 citizen measures make it to ballots nationwide every two years.

While I&Rs were intended as a tool of direct democracy, legislatures are increasingly concerned that the process of getting them on the ballot can be manipulated by special interest groups. This has led to more than 90 bills introduced to change the I&R process in some way so far in 2026.

While most bills addressing the process fail, a few have become law this year. Utah (HB 242) created eligibility requirements to gather signature removal requests. It stemmed from claims that proponents misrepresented a proposed citizen initiative to repeal a 2018 redistricting measure. A coordinated effort arose to inform people about the initiative and request that they remove their signatures. Existing laws regulate the conduct of signature gatherers, but there are no laws regulating those who gather requests to remove signatures.

South Dakota (SB 5) requires a disclosure on the ballot whether a measure was introduced by citizens or the Legislature, the two places where I&Rs originate. It isn't always obvious where a ballot measure originated, with the only indication often being how the measure is numbered.

A common topic of I&R legislation nationwide has been the financing of ballot measure campaigns. Federal law prohibits foreign nationals from contributing to candidate campaigns but is silent on funding to ballot measures. As a result, several states have enacted prohibitions in recent years on foreign nationals contributing to their citizen initiative campaigns, including California, Missouri and Ohio. (To learn more about prohibitions on foreign contributions, see NCSL's page Foreign Campaign Contributions and Expenditures.)

State constitutions are not as malleable as statutes, which can be changed through simple legislation. Changing constitutions, on the other hand, requires lawmakers to get voter approval in every state except Delaware. As I&R provisions are typically found in state constitutions, most changes must first go to the ballot. For this year's November general election ballots, legislatures have referred at least seven measures that would change the I&R process.

Five of the proposed measures relate to the vote threshold a measure must reach to be enacted. North Dakota and South Dakota both have measures that would increase the passage threshold for proposed constitutional amendments to 60% from a simple majority of greater than 50%. Currently, the only states with passage thresholds larger than a simple majority for all constitutional amendments are Colorado and Florida, with 55% and 60% thresholds respectively.

A proposed Missouri measure would do a variety of things; notably, it would implement a geographic requirement for an initiative to pass. It would require every congressional district in the state to approve of a measure through a simple majority. If a single district disapproved, the entire measure would fail. Geographic requirements are a common when qualifying for the ballot. However, no state currently attaches such provisions to the voting on a measure.

A California measure takes a different approach: It would require any measure looking to increase the voting threshold to receive that threshold to be enacted. So, if a measure would increase passage thresholds to 55%, voters must approve the measure implementing it with 55% of the vote. Oregon is the only state with such a provision.

To learn more about citizen initiative policies, see NCSL's page Initiative and Referendum Processes.

Adam Kuckuk is a policy associate in NCSL's Elections and Redistricting Program.