Ballot Measure-o-meter

Idahoans United for Women & Families are pursuing a ballot initiative to restore critical reproductive healthcare in the Gem State. Under the initiative, lawmakers could not restrict abortion access before the point of fetal viability, and access to birth control and fertility treatments like IVF would be protected. Currently, abortion is banned in Idaho with narrow exceptions for rape, incest, or to save the life of the pregnant person.

The Respect Nebraska Voters coalition is pursuing a ballot initiative to protect the state’s citizen-led initiative process by raising the vote threshold required for legislators to make changes to voter-approved measures. 

The push to protect the state’s ballot initiative process comes on the heels of lawmakers partially repealing 2024’s popular paid sick leave initiative. The legislation — which passed by a margin of just one vote — targeted temporary and seasonal agricultural workers and small business employees, stripping an estimated 140,000+ workers of the guaranteed right to earn paid sick time and overriding the will of the nearly 75% of voters who approved I-436.

A citizen-led initiative on June’s primary ballot would raise the state’s minimum wage to $15/hour by 2029 then allow it to be adjusted annually to keep up with rising inflation. If it passes, about one-fifth of the state’s entire workforce would see a raise and the measure could lift roughly 200,000 Oklahoma children out of poverty.

Following a two-year, multi-session process, Virginia legislators have advanced a reproductive rights amendment to the November ballot.The proposal, which passed along party lines, would amend the state constitution to establish the right to make decisions about all matters related to one’s pregnancy. That would cover everything from abortions to contraception and fertility treatments.

A federal court judge stressed concerns about free speech violations when he ruled against several new anti-initiative laws in Arkansas. The judge blocked state officials from enforcing six new laws that would have made it nearly impossible for Arkansans to use the ballot initiative process. These include an affidavit requirement that the judge called ‘draconian’, an 8th grade reading level requirement that’s already been weaponized against several initiative campaigns this year, and unnecessary burdens placed on voters trying to sign petitions.

Unfortunately, Arkansas’ Secretary of State has appealed the judge’s decision.

While a federal judge indicated that a Florida anti-initiative law poses an existential threat to the citizen initiative process, he argued it is not inherently unconstitutional and can remain in place for now. Notably, the law prevented any citizen-led initiatives from qualifying for this year’s ballot. A silver lining: in response, Florida Decides Healthcare is innovating their processes and has developed a first-of-its-kind mail-and-chase petition system!

North Dakota’s House of Representatives is proposing a constitutional amendment that, if approved by voters, would create a single-subject rule for all future ballot measures in the state. Advocates for direct democracy have raised concerns that the amendment would give state officials a disproportionate amount of power to approve or deny changes to the constitution and would inevitably lead to more legislative and litigation-related hurdles to passing citizen-initiated measures.

This November, Wyoming voters will weigh in on a ballot initiative to further reduce residential property taxes by 50% for those who’ve lived in the state for at least a year — without providing a plan to backfill for local governments. Property taxes are the single largest revenue source in most Wyoming counties, raising $2 billion statewide in 2024 alone. As such, this proposal is estimated to cost local governments an estimated $644 million in lost revenue.

A proposed anti-trans initiative in Maine could be removed from the ballot following a successful lawsuit that found more than 12,000 petition signatures were invalid. The ballot measure would require all schools to designate sports teams, bathrooms, and locker rooms by a person’s sex assigned at birth: male, female or co-ed.

Maine equality orgs launched the Campaign for Free and Fair Schools coalition to defeat the anti-trans measure and defend the state’s civil rights protections from extremist agendas.

The Missouri legislature’s Amendment 4 seeks to severely undermine the state’s citizen-led ballot initiatives. The proposed amendment would require that initiatives be passed by a majority of voters in each of Missouri’s congressional districts — making it the highest vote threshold in the country. If voters approve the law, as few as 5% of opposing voters could defeat a ballot initiative.

A harmful anti-trans ballot initiative is proposing to block transgender women from female sports. BISC’s partners at Silver State Equality have called Gov. Lombardo’s initiative discriminatory and say that it encourages adults “to police girls’ bodies and appearance.”

An initiative backed by conservative group Let’s Go Washington is proposing to require teachers and school counselors to ‘out’ LGBTQIA+ students to parents and guardians. If passed, the measure would also restrict student access to help for challenges like depression, sexual assault, domestic violence, bullying, and anxiety by removing common sense records protection.

A coalition of education, civil rights, and domestic violence prevention organizations called No Hate in WA State is fighting to educate voters about the dangers of this initiative and another anti-trans measure.