Additionally, it requires that no more than 20% of the signatures required to place an initiative on the ballot come from any single congressional (i.e., U.S. House) district. 
"[1] Check out our classroom resources organized by each article or amendment, and by key constitutional questions. 
The Supreme Court has construed the term Legislature extremely broadly to include any entity or procedure that a states constitution permits to exercise lawmaking power. Since 2009, Healthy Democracy has led efforts to develop and refine the Citizens' Initiative Review process for use by Oregon voters. Click here for more information on the lawsuit and the ruling. 
[12] With the exception of Delaware, 49 US states allow legislatively referred state constitutional amendments. Thus, laws regulating congressional elections may be enacted not only by a states actual legislature, but also directly by a states voters through the initiative process or public referendum, in states that allow such procedures. Stretch as far as required to link it to the issue of the ages (this is for the children, Prop. The Elections Clause gives the states and the federal government concurrent jurisdiction over congressional elections, granting states the power to set the Times, Places, and Manner of these elections, and delegating to Congress the authority to alter state regulations or make its own. Battle for the Constitution: Week of March 29th, 2021 Roundup, Scholar Exchange: Voting Rights Amendments with Jamelle Bouie. [20] John Diaz wrote in an editorial for the San Francisco Chronicle in 2008:[21]. The Constitution uses the term Legislature repeatedly. The indirect initiative process, added to the state's constitution in the 1990s as Article 15, Section 273(3), requires that over a 12-month period, the sponsors obtain a total number of signatures equal to at least 12% of the total number of votes cast for governor in the state's last election for that office. For example, the Constitution specifies that anyone who is eligible to vote for the larger house of a state legislature may vote for the U.S. House and U.S. Senate as well. Term Limits, Inc. v. Thornton (1995), the Court held that the Elections Clause did not permit a state to refuse to print on the ballot the names of candidates for the U.S. House who already had served three terms there, or the names of candidates for the U.S. Senate who had already served two terms. Thus, in Arizona State Legislature v. Arizona Independent Redistricting Commission (AIRC) (2015), by a bare 5-4 majority, the Court decided to ignore the plain meaning of the Elections Clause. In Arizona v. Inter Tribal Council of Arizona (2013), the Supreme Court described Congresss power to regulate federal elections as paramount, noting that it may be exercised at any time, and to any extent which [Congress] deems expedient. By giving Congress the ability to veto state regulations or construct its own laws, the Framers created a safeguard against the states potential abuse of their authority to regulate federal elections. At the time the indirect initiative process passed, Mississippi had five congressional districts, but the state lost one House seat in the reapportionment that followed the 2000 United States Census. The statute affirmation allows the voters to collect signatures to place on ballot a question asking the state citizens to affirm a standing state law. For example, in some states, another round of signatures is required to qualify an initiative for the ballot if the legislature does not approve it. The Times, Places and Manner of holding Elections for Senators and Representatives, shall be prescribed in each State by the Legislature thereof; but the Congress may at any time by Law make or alter such Regulations, except as to the Places of chusing Senators. For instance, legislation passed by the voters as an Arizonan medical cannabis initiative was subsequently gutted by the Arizona legislature. In Cook v. Gralike (2001), the Court struck down a provision that required election officials to print a special warning on the ballot next to the name of any candidate for Congress who refused to support an amendment to the U.S Constitution that would impose term limits for Congress. Rather, the term refers to any lawmaking process authorized by a states constitution, including public referenda and initiatives, in which members of the public vote directly to enact a statute. In the United States, while no court or legislature needs to approve a proposal or the resultant initiated constitutional amendment, such amendments may be overturned if they are challenged and a court confirms that they are unconstitutional. If it's a tough sell on the facts, give it a sympathetic face and name such as "Marsy's Law" (Prop. Congress also has enacted statutes limiting the amount of money that people may contribute to candidates for Congress, requiring that people publicly disclose most election-related spending, mandating that voter registration forms be made available at various public offices, and requiring states to ensure the accuracy of their voter registration rolls. Federal law, which sets Election Day for House and Senate races, preempted the Louisiana law because the state law determined the winners from the results of the primary election, which was held on a date different from the federally mandated Election Day. Although the Elections Clause makes states primarily responsible for regulating congressional elections, it vests ultimate power in Congress. The power of states and Congress to regulate congressional elections under the Elections Clause is subject to express and implicit limits. In all of these states except Delaware, to modify the state constitution, at least one form of ballot measure is mandatory, under sometimes greatly different processes from state to state, either for directly voting on a proposed modification, or voting on a ballot measure for choosing to call or not for the election of a state convention charged of modifying the state constitution. [citation needed] 909 of these initiatives have been approved. [24] Signatures can be declared void based on technical omissions, and initiatives can be thrown out based on statistical samplings of signatures. One such example is Foster v. Love (1997), where the Supreme Court invalidated a Louisiana law that decreed the majority winner of the primary to be the winner of the U.S. House or Senate seat, negating the need for a general election. In the cases when both of the contradicting measures were approved by voters, the measure with the most votes was the one that became law. Read details about the process in each state by clicking the links in the chart. The Court also has held that a legislature may delegate its authority under the Elections Clause to other entities or officials. Other proposals include having a "cooling-off" period after an initiative qualifies, in which the legislature can make the initiative unnecessary by passing legislation acceptable to the initiative's sponsors. [15][16][17], Other criticisms are that competing initiatives with conflicting provisions can create legal difficulties when both pass;[18] and that when the initiatives are proposed before the end of the legislative session, the legislature can make statutory changes that weaken the case for passing the initiative. The Elections Clause is the primary source of constitutional authority to regulate elections for the U.S. House of Representatives and U.S. Senate. By making the term legislature dependent upon the lawmaking procedures recognized by state law instead of fixed within the text of the Elections Clause, the state, through its legislature and its citizens, retains a default role in determining how and through which body it wants to implement the Times, Places and Manner of federal elections. The U.S. Supreme Court has recognized that the Elections Clause is unique in how it structures the relationship between the states and the federal government, and these differences extend beyond the Clauses focus on federal elections. [30], Some proposed reforms include paying signature gatherers by the hour, rather than by the signature (to reduce incentives for fraud) and increasing transparency by requiring major financial backers of initiatives to be disclosed to potential signatories. To suspend the enactment of the targeted law until the election, the requirement was 53,492 valid signatures. The initiative and referendums process have critics. The national initiative is a proposal to amend the United States Constitution to allow ballot initiatives at the federal level. E.g., while California or Oregon typically have dozens of ballot measures each year, Idaho has had 28 since the 1930s, of which twelve passed. 4, parental notification on abortion). The chart does not differentiate between different types of initiated statute or initiated amendment, such as between direct or indirect initiatives. In the last century-and-a-half, however, Congress became more aggressive in exercising its authority under the Clause, imposing substantive requirements that states must follow in structuring federal elections. It also shows the signature requirement for each type of measure as of the 2021/2022 election cycle. [13], Nevada is the only state to allow for statute affirmation. Coleman added that from 2003 to 2015, the legislature had attempted six times to place an amendment on the ballot that would have changed the process to reflect Mississippi's current (and presumably future) House apportionment, but all attempts died in committee. Signature requirements for ballot measures in Alaska, Signature requirements for ballot measures in Arizona, Signature requirements for ballot measures in Arkansas, Signature requirements for ballot measures in California, Signature requirements for ballot measures in Colorado, Signature requirements for ballot measures in Florida, Signature requirements for ballot measures in Idaho, Signature requirements for ballot measures in Illinois, Signature requirements for ballot measures in Maine, Signature requirements for ballot measures in Maryland, Signature requirements for ballot measures in Massachusetts, Signature requirements for ballot measures in Michigan, Signature requirements for ballot measures in Mississippi, Signature requirements for ballot measures in Missouri, Signature requirements for ballot measures in Montana, Signature requirements for ballot measures in Nebraska, Signature requirements for ballot measures in Nevada, Signature requirements for ballot measures in New Mexico, Signature requirements for ballot measures in North Dakota, Signature requirements for ballot measures in Ohio, Signature requirements for ballot measures in Oklahoma, Signature requirements for ballot measures in Oregon, Signature requirements for ballot measures in South Dakota, Signature requirements for ballot measures in Utah, Signature requirements for ballot measures in Washington, Signature requirements for ballot measures in Wyoming, Changes in 2009 to laws governing ballot measures, Changes in 2008 to laws governing ballot measures, Changes in 2007 to laws governing ballot measures, Changes in 2010 to laws governing ballot measures, Changes in 2011 to laws governing ballot measures, Changes in 2012 to laws governing ballot measures, Changes in 2013 to laws governing ballot measures, Changes in 2014 to laws governing ballot measures, Changes in 2016 to laws governing ballot measures, Changes in 2015 to laws governing ballot measures, Changes in 2017 to laws governing ballot measures, Changes to laws governing ballot measures, Changes in 2018 to laws governing ballot measures, Changes in 2019 to laws governing ballot measures, Changes in 2020 to laws governing ballot measures, Changes in 2021 to laws governing ballot measures, Changes in 2022 to laws governing ballot measures, States that allow initiated constitutional amendments, Chart of American states and their access to direct democracy, Laws governing citizen grand juries in Kansas, Laws governing citizen grand juries in Nevada, Laws governing citizen grand juries in North Dakota, Laws governing citizen grand juries in New Mexico, Laws governing citizen grand juries in Nebraska, Laws governing citizen grand juries in Oklahoma, Legislatively referred constitutional amendment, Initiatives to the Legislature (Washington), Redevelopment and Housing Authority Referendum (Virginia), https://ballotpedia.org/wiki/index.php?title=States_with_initiative_or_referendum&oldid=8750094, Pages using DynamicPageList parser function. The CIR is a benchmark in the initiative reform and public engagement fields. The state would organize such a review of each ballot measure, and include the panelists' statements in the voters' pamphlet. Deciding where to divide towns, what communities of interest must be maintained together, and which characteristics of a population are most salient in crafting districts are fundamentally political questions for which objective right answers do not exist. Please support our educational mission of increasing awareness and understanding of the U.S. Constitution. An elected partisan legislature is quite likely a far more suitable entity for making such quintessentially partisan decisions than a supposedly technocratic bureaucracy.
In contrast, the Elections Clause does not require a conflict between state and federal law, and Congress can displace state law at will. So-called independent commissions operate under a veneer of non-partisanship, which often means only that the participants partisan preferences remain hidden, far less susceptible to public scrutiny. Additionally, multiple forms of direct democracy also exists at the local level, including in some states that otherwise do not have these forms of direct democracy at the state level, the availability of direct democracy measures at the local level varying by jurisdiction depending on state and local laws.[3]. [33] This marked the first time a legislature has made voter deliberation a formalized part of the election process.
An objection not so much to the initial concept, but to its present implementations, is that signature challenges are becoming a political tool, with state officials and opposing groups litigating the process, rather than simply taking the issue fight to voters. [22] To prevent such occurrences, initiatives are sometimes used to amend the state constitution and thus prevent the legislature from changing it without sending a referendum to the voters; however, this produces the problems of inflexibility mentioned above. Statutory initiatives typically require fewer signatures to qualify to be placed on a future ballot.). The Supreme Court has aggressively enforced this restriction by invalidating various attempts to impose term limits on Members of Congress. In a legislature, everyones partisan incentives and biases are open and overt. Despite the breadth of federal power, Congress rarely invokes the Clause in order to nationalize election administration. To suspend the enactment of the targeted law until the election, the requirement was 175,413 valid signatures. In others, if the legislature passes a law determined to be substantially similar to the initiative, it precludes an election on the original initiative proposal, while in others the legislature must pass the initiative unaltered or it goes to the voters.[4]. Twenty-six states have initiative and/or veto referendum processes at the statewide level. In Massachusetts, if enough signatures are submitted for an initiated constitutional amendment, the initiative first goes to the legislature where it must garner approval in two successive legislative sessions from one-quarter of state senators and representatives voting together in a joint session. Each state has individual requirements to qualify initiatives for the ballot. On May 14, 2021, the Mississippi Supreme Court issued a 6-3 decision stating that it is impossible for any petition to meet the state's distribution requirement and has been impossible since congressional reapportionment in 2001. In the politics of the United States, the process of initiatives and referendums allow citizens of many U.S. states[1] to place new legislation, or to place legislation that has recently been passed by a legislature on a ballot for a popular vote.
Legislatures themselves may tighten already arduous requirements. Click here to contact us for media inquiries, and please donate here to support our continued expansion. [31] It has also been proposed that proxy voting be combined with initiative and referendum to form a hybrid of direct democracy and representative democracy.[32]. Individuals who satisfy those requirements cannot be prohibited from running for office for failing to satisfy other qualifications. 9, victims' rights and parole) or "Sarah's Law" (Prop. Find a billionaire benefactor with the ideological motivation or crass self-interest to spend the $1-million plus to get something on the ballot with mercenary signature gatherers. By utilizing this initiative process, citizens can propose and vote on constitutional amendments directly, without need of legislative referral. This is the number of signatures required to put a targeted law before voters. Initiatives and referendumscollectively known as "ballot measures," "propositions," or simply "questions"differ from most legislation passed by representative democracies; ordinarily, an elected legislative body develops and passes laws. It held that the word Legislature does not mean what most people would assume; it does not refer to the body in each state comprised of elected officials that periodically convenes to debate and enact laws. These holdings, while well-intentioned, are flatly wrong and directly contradict the plain meaning of the Elections Clause. In Arizona State Legislature v. Arizona Independent Redistricting Commission (AIRC) (2015), the Supreme Court emphasized this aspect of state power, reading the term legislature in the Clause broadly enough to encompass the ballot initiative process that Arizonas residents used to delegate the legislatures redistricting authority to an independent redistricting commission. With few exceptions, however, states retain substantial authority under the Clause to structure federal elections in a manner that is consistent with state law. One unusual feature of the Elections Clause is that it does not confer the power to regulate congressional elections on states as a whole, but rather the Legislature of each state. Both legislatures and Congress are comprised of partisan elected representatives who might be tempted to tweak the rules to aid their political allies, rather than promoting the public interest. Moreover, redistricting is not a science that can be conducted according to abstract principles. . The Elections Clause does not permit either the states or Congress to override those provisions by establishing additional qualifications for voting for Congress. [8][9], Called Popular referendum, or alternatively Veto Referendum, Citizen referendum, Statute referendum, Statute remand, People's veto, or Citizen's veto, in which a predetermined number of signatures (typically lower than the number required for an initiative) qualifies a ballot measure for voting on repealing or not a specific state law.
Find out about upcoming programs, exhibits, and educational initiatives on the National Constitution Centers website. [28] Ultimately the organizers had by the April 30 deadline delivered 60,000 signatures to county clerks' offices, which if verified are far more than the 56,192 required. If the legislative body elects not to pass the proposed new law within a prescribed window of opportunity, the initiative must then be placed on the ballot. Prepare to spend a bundle on soft-focus television advertising and hope voters don't notice the fine print or the independent analyses of good-government groups or newspaper editorial boards Today, the initiative process is no longer the antidote to special interests and the moneyed class; it is their vehicle of choice to attempt to get their way without having to endure the scrutiny and compromise of the legislative process. 7 and 10). When a law specifies that a person must satisfy certain requirements or follow certain procedures in order to vote, a court must determine whether it is a reasonable regulation of the electoral process under the Elections Clause, or instead undermines the right to vote. Election Integrity and Voting Rights: Should We Rewrite the Rules? In the majority decision, Justice Josiah Coleman wrote, "Whether with intent, by oversight, or for some other reason, the drafters of section 273(3) wrote a ballot-initiative process that cannot work in a world where Mississippi has fewer than five representatives in Congress.
Some argue that initiatives and referendums undermine representative government by circumventing the elected representatives of the people and allowing the people to directly make policy: they fear excessive majoritarianism (tyranny of the majority) as a result, believing that minority groups may be harmed. . Laws requiring people to register to vote in advance of elections or mandating that they vote at their assigned polling places are exactly the types of restrictions that the Elections Clause permits. The following states have initiative and/or veto referendum processes at the statewide level: Click on the links below to read about signature requirements and deadlines for ballot initiatives in each state. To work in todays reality, it will need amendingsomething that lies beyond the power of the Supreme Court. Likewise, the Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution protects the fundamental right to vote, barring states from needlessly imposing substantial burdens on the right. but only so far as Congress declines to pre-empt state legislative choices . [7], A May 2021 decision by the Mississippi Supreme Court nullified a voter-passed initiative that permitted medical marijuana in the state, with the 63 majority citing a fundamental flaw in the state's constitutional process that was viewed by media as effectively banning future use of indirect initiatives in the amendment process, barring a future constitutional amendment. A majority of the modern Supreme Court, however, does not trust institutional state legislatures to oversee the electoral process. They empowered Congress to step in and regulate such elections as a self-defense mechanism. The Clause directs and empowers states to determine the Times, Places, and Manner of congressional elections, subject to Congresss authority to make or alter state regulations. It is a form of direct democracy. The popular referendum was first introduced in the United States by South Dakota in 1898,[10] and first used in 1906 in Oregon, two years after the first initiative was used in 1904, also in Oregon. The availability of the powers at the local level varies by jurisdiction depending on state and local laws. Explore key historical documents that inspired the Framers of the Constitution and each amendment during the drafting process, the early drafts and major proposals behind each provision, and discover how the drafters deliberated, agreed and disagreed, on the path to compromise and the final text. As this summary shows, congressional elections are conducted under a complicated mix of state and federal laws, reflecting the Elections Clauses division of authority between state legislatures and Congress. An initiative is a means through which any citizen or organization may gather a predetermined number of signatures to qualify a measure to be placed on a ballot, and to be voted upon in a future election (These may be further divided into constitutional amendments and statutory initiatives. A few states have chosen to transfer power to draw congressional district lines from their respective legislatures to non-partisan or bipartisan independent redistricting commissions. These states believe that such commissions can make the electoral process more fair by preventing voters from being divided into congressional districts in ways that unduly protect existing officeholders (gerrymandering). Teach the Constitution in your classroom with nonpartisan resources including videos, lesson plans, podcasts, and more. [29], The New York Times reported in May 2021 that so far that year, Republicans had introduced 144 bills to restrict initiatives in 32 states, 19 of which had been signed into law by nine Republican governors. The technical name of these types of votes used internationally is referendum, but within the United States they are commonly known as ballot measures, propositions or ballot questions. There is no big secret to the formula for manipulating California's initiative process. This was the number of signatures required to put a targeted law before voters. The Court explained that the provision exceeded the states power under the Elections Clause because it was plainly designed to favor candidates who supported term limits, while placing others at a disadvantage.
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