Defining Success & the Win for Ballot Measures

While the fundamental measure of a win for ballot measures is 50+1 in most states, years  of experience has shown things are not that simple. We’ve seen too many  “successful” ballot measure campaigns with no plan to defend the win, ultimately negatively impacting organizations and/or communities and losing ground on the  issues that matter despite that initial victory. Similarly, we’ve watched ballot measures “fail” but pave the way for future success, building long-term power because of how they were  executed. With all this in mind, BISC understands that it is necessary to be more expansive in how we measure success. Winning at the ballot remains a critical measure, but we believe a more expansive definition of success will allow us to achieve those wins more  effectively and create long-term change.

Elements that make up the win in ballot measures are:

• Building durable power, positive community impact, and organizing capacity in the state through campaign investments (money, time, relationships, capacity, process). This long-term, place-based, rooted infrastructure is critical to building on and  sustaining whatever comes out of the campaign. 
• Inclusion of a clear equity lens throughout the campaign process, from conception to final evaluation. This is critical to ultimately impacting lives on the ground,  shifting policy and outcomes for all Americans regardless of issue, given the history  of slavery, Jim Crow, and other systems of systemic racialized control and discrimination that have determined what is possible in all aspects of American civic life. 
• Policies passed that have positive community impacts. 
• Ballot measure campaigns in states that tie into and shape the national landscape. 
• Shaping the state election environment through the ballot measure effort.
• Winning at the ballot box.