# 2026 Ballot Measures Hub Map of Content for statewide ballot measures in the 2026 cycle. As of June 2026, Ballotpedia is tracking 56 certified statewide measures across 28 states — well below the 2010–2024 even-year average of 161, with dozens more in signature-gathering or legislative referral pipelines. This page organizes them by issue category, connecting each to the vault's broader themes of [[Dark Money]], [[Gerrymandering]], [[Voter Suppression]], and the ongoing tension between direct democracy and the institutional capture strategies documented throughout this vault. The 2026 ballot landscape is shaped by two countervailing forces: progressive movements continuing to use ballot measures as an end-run around gerrymandered legislatures (the strategy that proved devastatingly effective in the [[Post-Dobbs Ballot Measures]] wave of 2022–2024), and conservative legislatures responding with a coordinated campaign to raise the barriers to direct democracy itself. --- > [!important] Results are in for the 4 August 2026 Missouri ballot — both measures failed > This hub was written before Missouri's August primary ballot and described its measures as pending. **Two were decided on 4 August 2026 and both lost.** > > - **[[Missouri Amendment 5 (2026)]] — income-tax phase-out: REJECTED, roughly 82% to 18%**, on more than 1.1 million votes. It would have given the legislature five years to phase out the state income tax while broadly expanding its power to raise sales taxes. > - **Missouri Amendment 4 — congressional-district approval for citizen initiatives: REJECTED.** This is the measure described under *Direct Democracy Under Siege* below as the Missouri GOP's structural backup plan. Voters declined it. > > The pairing is the finding: **voters used the initiative process to reject a legislature-backed tax measure, and in the same election refused to make that process harder to use.** Remaining Missouri measures on this page — including Amendment 3 — have not been re-verified and may also be out of date. ## Abortion and Reproductive Rights The [[Post-Dobbs Ballot Measures]] pattern — abortion rights winning even in deep-red states when put directly to voters — continues into 2026, but with a critical new twist: Missouri Republicans are attempting to *repeal* a voter-enacted right for the first time. **Missouri — Amendment 3 (Prohibit Abortion and Gender Transition Procedures for Minors).** The most consequential reproductive-rights ballot measure of 2026. This legislatively referred amendment would repeal the abortion-rights amendment that Missouri voters passed in November 2024 (51.6% to 48.4%) and reinstate a near-total ban, with narrow exceptions for medical emergency, fetal anomaly, and rape/incest (the latter only before 12 weeks). Crucially, the amendment bundles the abortion ban with a prohibition on gender-affirming medical care for minors — a strategy critics call "ballot candy," designed to leverage high public support for the trans care ban (67–73% in Missouri polling) to drag an otherwise unpopular abortion ban across the finish line. Polling shows 47% support, 40% opposition, 12% undecided — suggesting the bundling strategy may be working. This is the first time in American history that voters will decide whether to repeal an existing constitutional right to abortion. See [[Anti-Abortion Movement]], [[Abortion Politics]], [[Transphobia]]. **Nevada — Question 6.** Nevada's abortion-rights amendment (right to abortion before fetal viability) passed in 2024 with 64.1%, but Nevada law requires ballot measures to pass in two consecutive elections. The second and final vote happens November 3, 2026. Given the 2024 margin, passage is widely expected, but the measure will share a ballot with a competitive gubernatorial race and [[NV-03-2026]]. See [[Post-Dobbs Ballot Measures]]. **Virginia — Right to Reproductive Freedom Amendment.** A legislatively referred amendment establishing a "fundamental right to reproductive freedom" in Virginia's [[Bill of Rights]] — covering abortion, contraception, fertility treatment, prenatal and postpartum care, and miscarriage management. The amendment allows legislative restrictions in the third trimester with health exceptions. Virginia's amendment process required passage by the General Assembly in two consecutive sessions with an intervening election; it cleared both hurdles and is certified for November 3, 2026. Virginia would become the first Southern state to enshrine abortion rights constitutionally. See [[Reproductive Rights Movement]], [[Planned Parenthood Action Fund]]. **Missouri — Require Congressional District Approval for Citizen-Initiated Constitutional Amendments.** A companion measure to the abortion ban above. This legislatively referred amendment would require citizen-initiated constitutional amendments to win majority approval *in each congressional district* — not just statewide. The transparent goal: even if a future abortion-rights measure wins a statewide majority, it could be blocked by a single heavily Republican congressional district. Also adds provisions against "petition fraud" and foreign contributions to ballot campaigns. This is the Missouri GOP's backup plan if the outright repeal fails — make it structurally impossible to use the initiative process for abortion rights again. See the Direct Democracy Under Siege section below. **Signature-Gathering Phase:** Idaho and Nebraska have active campaigns collecting signatures for abortion-rights ballot measures, though neither has qualified yet. --- ## LGBTQ Rights and Trans Issues 2026 marks the first cycle in which anti-trans ballot measures have qualified for statewide votes in significant numbers — a shift from legislative action to direct democracy by the right. **Colorado — Initiative 109 (Sex Requirements for School Sports).** Would require all K–12 and college athletic teams to be designated male, female, or co-ed based on "biological reproductive system," effectively banning transgender girls from girls' teams. Colorado is only the second state (after Washington) to put a statewide trans sports measure directly to voters. **Colorado — Initiative 110 (Prohibit Gender Transition Surgeries for Minors).** A companion to Initiative 109, banning healthcare professionals from performing surgeries on minors "for the purpose of altering biological sex characteristics" and prohibiting state/federal funds, Medicaid, or insurance from covering such procedures. [[Planned Parenthood Action Fund]] and allied organizations have launched a coordinated opposition campaign. **Missouri — Amendment 3** (see Abortion section above) also contains a gender-affirming care ban for minors, bundled with the abortion prohibition. **Washington — Biological Sex Sports Requirement.** An indirect initiated state statute requiring biologically male students be prohibited from female-designated sports teams, with verification by healthcare provider. Status: qualified for ballot. **Maine — Sex-Based Sports Eligibility.** Collected sufficient signatures; must be approved by the legislature or go directly to voters. Status: pending legislative action. **Virginia, Missouri, Ohio, Oregon — Same-Sex Marriage Ban Repeals.** Several states have legislatively referred amendments to remove defunct constitutional bans on same-sex marriage left over from the pre-*Obergefell* era. These are largely symbolic cleanup measures but carry political salience. See [[National Center for Transgender Equality]], [[Transphobia]]. --- ## Electoral Reform and Voting Rights **Alaska — Repeal Top-Four Ranked-Choice Voting.** After Ballot Measure 2 (2020) established Alaska's top-four open primary and ranked-choice general election system — and after a repeal attempt failed by the narrowest margin in state history in 2024 — opponents are back with another repeal initiative for 2026. Critically, the initiative would also repeal the [[Dark Money]] disclosure requirements enacted alongside RCV, which require entities contributing more than $2,000/year from donated funds to disclose their true sources. The bundling of RCV repeal with dark money disclosure rollback is the inverse of Missouri's "ballot candy" strategy: here, unpopular dark money deregulation rides the coattails of anti-RCV sentiment. > [!important] Follow the money, disclosed 2026-10-11 — $1.5M of out-of-state super PAC money is behind the Alaska repeal > [[Aurora Action Network]], a federal independent-expenditure-only committee with an Anchorage address > and a Wisconsin treasurer, disclosed on **2026-10-11** (FEC file **2019466**, Q3 Form 3X) that it took > **$1,500,000.00 from [[Elon Musk]]** on 2026-07-06 and **$325,000.00 from [[Jeff Yass]]** on > 2026-07-08 — together **98.0%** of its quarterly receipts. > > The committee **filed no Schedule E**. It moved **$1,500,000.00** out as "DONATION" rows to > **[[Repeal Now]]**, the repeal campaign, in two transfers (**$1,000,000.00** on 2026-07-29 and > **$500,000.00** on 2026-09-10), plus **$250,000.00** to a corporation at its own treasurer's street > address. **The money funding the measure that would repeal Alaska's dark-money disclosure rule > arrived through exactly the kind of pass-through that rule exists to surface.** > > See [[Elon Musk 1.5M to Aurora Action Network]]. **Alaska — Campaign Contribution Limits.** A separate initiative establishing contribution limits for state and local elections: $2,000/individual per cycle to candidates, $5,000/year to parties or groups. Qualified for November 2026. **California — Voter ID and Citizenship Verification Initiative.** A GOP-backed constitutional amendment requiring government-issued photo ID for in-person voting and the last four digits of a driver's license or SSN for mail-in ballots. Has qualified for the November ballot after submitting 1.3 million signatures. This runs directly counter to Governor [[Gavin Newsom]]'s SB 1174, which prohibited local jurisdictions from adopting voter ID requirements. See [[Voter Suppression]]. **Nevada — Question 7 (Voter ID).** Would require photo ID for in-person voting and partial ID for mail voting. Like Question 6 (abortion), this is a second-pass vote after initial approval in 2024. **Citizenship Voting Requirements.** Arkansas, Kansas, and South Dakota have certified constitutional amendments declaring only U.S. citizens may vote — largely symbolic, since noncitizen voting in state elections is already illegal, but designed to reinforce anti-immigrant narratives. See [[Immigration Restrictionism]], [[Immigration]]. **North Carolina — Voter ID Amendment.** Would expand ID requirements to all voters, not just those voting in person. **Kansas — Elected Supreme Court Justices (August 4, 2026).** Would abolish the merit-based Kansas Supreme Court Nominating Commission and replace it with direct elections for all seven justices. Passed the legislature on party-line votes (93% Republican support). This is significant in the RWKB context: the Kansas Supreme Court has been a thorn in the GOP's side, blocking abortion restrictions and partisan gerrymandering. Replacing merit selection with elections would open judicial seats to the same [[Dark Money]] flows that dominate other campaigns, effectively extending the [[Federalist Society]]'s judicial capture strategy from the federal to the state level. See [[Supreme Court of the United States]], [[Leonard Leo]]. **Michigan — [[Constitutional Convention]] Question.** A constitutionally mandated question asking voters whether to hold a state constitutional convention. Appears automatically every 16 years. --- ## Gun Control and Firearms **Massachusetts — Firearm Regulations Referendum.** A veto referendum on H.4885, the "Act Modernizing Firearm Laws" passed in 2024. The law expanded Massachusetts' assault weapons ban, mandated firearm serial numbers, established penalties for untraceable firearms, and allowed school administrators and healthcare providers to request Extreme Risk Protection Orders. Gun rights advocates collected over 90,000 signatures (double the ~37,000 required) to put a repeal question on the ballot. A "yes" vote upholds the law; "no" repeals it. See [[NRA]], [[NRA Political Machine]], [[Gun Owners of America]]. **Arkansas — Right to Keep and Bear Arms Amendment.** Would create a constitutional right to keep and bear arms "without limitation on the possession and use of ammunition, firearm accessories, or firearm components." A maximalist [[Second Amendment]] measure. --- ## Minimum Wage **Oklahoma — State Question 832 ($15 Minimum Wage, June 16, 2026).** Would raise Oklahoma's minimum wage from $7.25 (the federal floor, unchanged since 2009) to $12/hour in 2027, $13.50 in 2028, and $15 in 2029, with annual inflation adjustments thereafter. Also removes existing exemptions from the Oklahoma Minimum Wage Act. The [[Economic Policy Institute]] estimates 357,700 workers (~20% of Oklahoma's wage-earning workforce) would see raises totaling $783 million. Opposition from the Oklahoma Farm Bureau and State Chamber of Commerce. This follows the pattern of minimum-wage measures performing strongly even in deep-red states — previous measures passed in Arkansas (2018), Florida (2020), and Nebraska (2024). --- ## Cannabis and Drug Policy **Idaho — Medical Marijuana Initiative.** Would legalize medical cannabis for patients with qualifying conditions (chronic pain, cancer, AIDS, MS, epilepsy, PTSD) who hold medical cannabis cards. Limit of 113g smokable cannabis or 20g THC for other forms per month. Idaho is one of the last states with no legal cannabis program. **Idaho — HJR 4 (Block Citizen Initiatives on Drug Policy).** A legislatively referred amendment that would give the legislature *exclusive* authority to legalize marijuana, narcotics, or psychoactive substances — stripping citizens of the ability to use the initiative process for drug policy reform. This is a preemptive strike: Idaho's GOP-dominated legislature saw what happened in other red states where voters legalized cannabis over legislative opposition and moved to block the ballot-measure path entirely. See Direct Democracy Under Siege below. **Oklahoma — Marijuana Legalization Initiative.** Would allow adults 21+ to purchase/possess up to 8 ounces and cultivate up to 12 plants. Status: signature gathering. **Nebraska — Marijuana Legalization Initiative.** Would establish recreational use rights for adults 21+. Status: signature gathering. **Massachusetts — Alter Marijuana Regulation Laws Initiative.** A counter-reform measure that would repeal laws legalizing recreational cannabis sales and home cultivation while retaining decriminalization for possession up to one ounce. Status: potential for ballot. **Montana — Initiative 194 (Prohibit Entity Contributions).** While primarily a campaign finance measure, this initiative would prohibit "artificial persons" (corporations, nonprofits, trusts, etc.) from contributing to campaigns and ballot measure elections — directly targeting the cannabis industry's ability to fund legalization campaigns and the [[Dark Money Ecosystem]] more broadly. --- ## Tax and Fiscal Policy **Wyoming — Homeowner Property Tax Exemption.** Would exempt 50% of a primary residence's assessed value from property taxes. Status: certified for ballot. **Louisiana — Property Tax Special Assessment.** Would raise the income limit to qualify for special property tax assessment from $100,000 to $150,000. **Florida — Budget Stabilization Fund.** Would increase the budget stabilization fund limit from 10% to 25% of net general revenue. Bipartisan support in legislature (99% R, 87% D). **Arizona — Prohibit Vehicle Miles Traveled Tax.** Would prohibit state and local governments from imposing taxes or fees based on vehicle miles traveled. A preemptive measure against potential congestion/emissions-based road pricing. **California — Proposition 40 (Billionaire Tax).** One-time 5% tax on net worth above $1 billion for people resident on January 1, 2026, with 90% of revenue going to health care. Qualified June 17, 2026. Opposition money tops $187M, roughly 5 to 1 over the yes side, led by [[Sergey Brin]]. Polls were roughly even in late September. Competing Props 41 and 42 can defeat it by outpolling it. See [[California Billionaires Tax]]. **San Francisco — Props D, E and F (Charter Reform).** A local measure, listed here because $11.5M in tech-billionaire money is behind it. Mayor Daniel Lurie's package would raise the signature threshold for citizen initiatives to 8% of registered voters and give the mayor power to hire and fire department heads. See [[San Francisco Charter Reform]]. **California — Local Tax Threshold Initiative.** Would raise the voter approval threshold for local special taxes from simple majority to two-thirds. Has cleared signature thresholds. **Tennessee — Prohibit State Property Taxes.** Would constitutionally prohibit the legislature from enacting property taxes. **Missouri — Amendment 5, Income Tax Phase-Out (4 August 2026): FAILED ~82–18.** Would have directed the legislature to phase out the state income tax over five years, offset by broad new authority to raise sales taxes. Rejected by better than four to one in a state Trump carried comfortably — see [[Missouri Amendment 5 (2026)]]. The scale of the defeat is the datapoint: what voters rejected was the *swap* from a progressive revenue source to a regressive one, not tax reduction as such. **Missouri — Parks and Conservation Sales Tax Renewal.** Would renew the existing 0.1% sales/use tax for 10 years to fund state parks and conservation. Bipartisan measure. --- ## Labor Rights **Vermont — Proposal 3 (Right to Organize).** Would amend Vermont's Declaration of Rights to establish a constitutional right to organize and join a labor organization for collective bargaining. If passed, Vermont would become one of the first states to constitutionally protect labor organizing rights. **Utah — Public Sector Union Collective Bargaining Referendum.** *Mooted.* The legislature repealed HB 267 (which banned public-sector collective bargaining) in a December 2025 special session after labor organizers gathered ~320,000 signatures — nearly a show of force that made the legislature blink. The referendum is technically certified but the underlying law no longer exists. See [[Labor Movement]], [[National Labor Relations Act]]. **Nevada — Teacher Strike Exemption.** Would exempt teachers and school employees from the state's ban on public employee strikes. --- ## Immigration **Arizona — Drug Cartels as Terrorist Organizations.** Legislatively referred measure directing the Arizona Department of Homeland Security to "do everything within its authority to address the threat posed by drug cartels" and declaring them terrorist organizations. Passed legislature on party-line vote. See [[Immigration Restrictionism]], [[Immigration]]. **Citizenship Voting Requirements** (see Electoral Reform section) — Arkansas, Kansas, South Dakota citizenship-only voting amendments also serve as immigration-themed messaging vehicles. --- ## Education **California — Education Savings Account / Blaine Amendment Repeal.** A proposed initiative to create voucher-style education savings accounts and repeal the state's Blaine Amendment (which restricts public funding of religious schools). California voters have rejected school voucher measures twice before. Status: signature gathering. See [[Center for Education Reform]], [[Classical Education Movement]]. **Kansas — Elected Supreme Court Justices** (see Electoral Reform) — also an education issue, as the Kansas Supreme Court has been a major force in school funding litigation. --- ## Direct Democracy Under Siege One of the most important meta-themes of 2026 is the coordinated effort by Republican-controlled legislatures to restrict the ballot initiative process itself — a direct response to progressive victories on abortion, Medicaid expansion, marijuana legalization, and minimum wage increases achieved through direct democracy over the past decade. **Supermajority Requirements:** - **North Dakota** — Would require 60% supermajority to pass constitutional amendments (currently simple majority). Legislatively referred. - **South Dakota — Amendment L** — Would require 60% supermajority for constitutional amendments. This follows the Ohio 2023 playbook: raise the threshold to make future progressive ballot measures functionally impossible. See [[Post-Dobbs Ballot Measures]] (Ohio section). - **Utah** — Would require 60% supermajority for citizen-initiated ballot measures that create or increase taxes. - **California — ACA 13** — A defensive counter-measure: would require that any initiative proposing a supermajority threshold must itself pass by that same supermajority. Moved from the 2024 to 2026 ballot. **Initiative Process Restrictions:** - **Missouri — Congressional District Approval** (see Abortion section) — would require citizen-initiated amendments to win in *each* congressional district, not just statewide. A gerrymandering veto on direct democracy. - **Idaho — HJR 4** (see Cannabis section) — would strip citizens of the ability to use initiatives for drug policy reform, reserving that power exclusively for the legislature. - **North Dakota — Single-Subject Requirement** — would impose a single-subject requirement on constitutional amendments, a seemingly neutral procedural reform often used to challenge and disqualify progressive ballot measures on technicalities. **The Pattern:** In 2025 alone, state lawmakers introduced or passed **more than 150 bills** restricting the ballot measure process — tightening signature requirements, shortening campaign timelines, imposing confusing legal standards, and raising vote thresholds. The Ballot Initiative Strategy Center tracks this as a systematic erosion of direct democracy, driven by the same forces — [[Koch Network]], [[Heritage Foundation]], and allied [[Dark Money]] networks — that have spent decades capturing state legislatures through [[Gerrymandering]] and [[Voter Suppression]]. When voters use the one tool that bypasses those captured institutions, the response is to break the tool. --- ## The Big Picture: What 2026 Ballot Measures Reveal The 2026 ballot landscape crystallizes several dynamics this vault tracks: **Direct democracy as resistance infrastructure.** The [[Post-Dobbs Ballot Measures]] proved that ballot measures could bypass gerrymandered legislatures on abortion. In 2026, the same strategy is being attempted on minimum wage (Oklahoma), cannabis (Idaho, Oklahoma, Nebraska), labor rights (Vermont), and gun safety (Massachusetts). The question is whether the initiative process can survive the coordinated legislative assault designed to neuter it. **The bundling strategy.** Missouri's Amendment 3 — combining an abortion ban with a trans care ban — is the most sophisticated attempt yet to use one popular policy as a vehicle for an unpopular one. Watch whether this tactic proliferates. Alaska's RCV repeal bundled with dark money disclosure rollback is the mirror image. **Capture vs. consent.** Kansas's elected-judges measure illustrates the vault's core tension: the [[Federalist Society]] spent decades capturing the federal judiciary through institutional channels; now state-level conservatives want to open state supreme courts to the same [[Dark Money]]-fueled capture. The Kansas Supreme Court's independence on abortion and school funding made it a target. **The counter-majoritarian ratchet.** Supermajority requirements in North Dakota, South Dakota, Utah, and Missouri's congressional-district requirement are all designed to make it harder for majorities to govern through direct democracy. Combined with [[Gerrymandering]] that already distorts legislative representation, these measures would close the last democratic pressure valve available to state-level majorities. See [[Dark Money]], [[Dark Money Ecosystem]], [[Gerrymandering]], [[Voter Suppression]], [[Koch Network]], [[Heritage Foundation]], [[Federalist Society]], [[ACLU]], [[Resistance Hub]]. --- ## Related - [[2026 Midterms Hub]] — parent index for all 2026 election coverage - [[Post-Dobbs Ballot Measures]] — the 2022–2024 precedent wave - [[Abortion Politics]], [[Anti-Abortion Movement]], [[Reproductive Rights Movement]] - [[Dark Money]], [[Dark Money Ecosystem]], [[Citizens United v. FEC]] - [[Voter Suppression]], [[Gerrymandering]] - [[Immigration Restrictionism]], [[Immigration]] - [[NRA]], [[NRA Political Machine]], [[Gun Owners of America]] - [[Koch Network]], [[Heritage Foundation]], [[Federalist Society]] - [[ACLU]], [[Planned Parenthood Action Fund]] - [[Labor Movement]], [[National Labor Relations Act]] - [[2022 Midterm Elections]], [[2024 Presidential Election]]