Ballot Initiatives and Referendums

Progressive Era reformers, frustrated with legislatures they saw as controlled by railroads and other special interests, promoted direct democracy. South Dakota adopted the statewide initiative and referendum in 1898, and Oregon's 1902 system became the model for most Western states. There is no national initiative or referendum. Today about half the states provide for citizen initiatives, popular referendums, or both, mostly in the West and Midwest, while every state allows the legislature to refer measures to voters, and nearly all require voter approval of constitutional amendments.

In an initiative, citizens draft a proposed law or constitutional amendment and gather a required number of voter signatures to place it on the ballot. In a popular referendum, voters gather signatures to put a recently passed law to a vote, potentially repealing it. A legislative referral is a measure the legislature itself places on the ballot. States set signature thresholds, distribution requirements across counties, single-subject rules, and deadlines, and campaigns frequently spend millions of dollars on signature gathering and advertising.

Initiatives have driven major policy changes, including California's Proposition 13 property tax limit in 1978, term limits, minimum wage increases, Medicaid expansion, marijuana legalization, independent redistricting, and, after 2022, abortion rights measures in states such as Michigan and Ohio. Some legislatures have responded by raising signature or approval thresholds, and Mississippi's initiative process was voided by its supreme court in 2021. Supporters say direct democracy lets voters act when legislatures will not, while critics say it produces poorly drafted laws and favors well-funded interests.