# How a Ballot Measure Gets on the Ballot Twenty-six states let their voters write law directly, or veto what a legislature has written. Getting a question in front of those voters is a sequence of filing requirements, officer-drafted titles, fiscal notes, subject-matter screens, signature thresholds, county-by-county distribution rules, circulator licensing, sample verification, and pre-election litigation — and almost nothing survives it. This map draws that sequence as a process: **does the power exist → which of five instruments → the gates before a single signature → the number → the geographic spread → circulation → verification → the challenge → the vote → and what the legislature may do the following spring.** It is the measure-side companion to [[How a Candidate Gets on the Ballot]], which maps the same problem for a person rather than a proposal. The two share a legal lane — the circulator restrictions and petitioning rules at stage 5 here are litigated in the same cases — and they diverge completely at the end, because a candidate who wins takes office and a measure that wins becomes text a legislature can edit. The single structural fact this map exists to show: **the attrition does not happen at the ballot box.** Of 692 initiative petitions filed for 2026 ballots, 53 reached one — 7.6 percent, against a 6.8 percent even-year average since 2010. The other 92 percent died at the stages drawn below. And the other route onto the same ballot passes through none of them: of the 164 statewide measures certified for 2026, **111 were put there by legislatures, 91 of those as constitutional amendments — more than every citizen measure of every kind combined.** A legislature's "signature requirement" is the votes of its own members. That asymmetry was itself on the 2026 ballot, and the result is the second thing worth drawing. Every restriction on the citizen route put to a November electorate lost, four of the five by better than two to one, while both measures protecting the power won by twenty points or more. But the two restrictions that actually took effect in 2026 never faced a November electorate at all — one passed at a June primary on half the turnout, and the measures that would have shielded the initiative power in Arkansas and Nebraska were killed at stages 6 and 7, with 108,837 Arkansas signatures voided over a mismatched popular name and Nebraska's measure removed under the single-subject rule. The gates decided 2026. The votes did not get the chance. > [!note] How to read this chart > `──▶` = the main path · `└─▶` = a branch or bypass · `◇` = a decision point · `✕` = the measure dies here · `★` = the vote itself, or a ruling that let a vote happen · `⚑` = a load-bearing stage, where measures actually die · `☐` = the rule is a published number a sponsor can check in advance · `◎` = the point where someone other than the sponsor writes the words voters will read · `⊘` = a route that exists on paper and cannot be used · `§` = a rule a court has struck down or enjoined · `◈` = a consequence that appears in no statute · `≠` = two routes to one ballot, treated unequally · `[ ]` = a dated note or caveat. Stages run in the order a sponsor meets them, not in order of lethality; stages 2, 4 and 6 end the most petitions. Everything inside the fence is plain text — linked pages appear in the prose, the Notes and the See also. Stage 10 is a dated block and is the only part of this map that goes stale inside a cycle. ``` HOW A BALLOT MEASURE GETS ON THE BALLOT (as of 7 November 2026) │ Legend: ──▶ main path └─▶ branch or bypass ◇ decision ✕ the measure dies here │ ★ the vote itself ⚑ load-bearing stage ☐ the rule is a published │ number a sponsor can check in advance ◎ someone other than the sponsor │ writes the words voters will read ⊘ a route that exists and cannot be │ used § a rule a court has struck down or enjoined ◈ a consequence │ written in no statute ≠ two routes to one ballot, treated unequally │ [ ] dated note or caveat │ Scale: 692 initiative petitions were filed for 2026 ballots across the 26 states │ that have the power. 53 reached a ballot — 7.6 percent, against an │ even-year average of 6.8 since 2010. Eleven of those 26 states had no │ citizen initiative on any 2026 ballot at all. │ [ Ballotpedia; filings counted as of 1 Aug 2026. ] │ ■ 0. DOES THE POWER EXIST AT ALL (a state-by-state grant; there is no federal route) │ ☐ 26 STATES have the initiative, the popular referendum, or both. 24 have the │ initiative · 23 have the popular (veto) referendum · Maryland and New Mexico │ have the referendum ONLY · 18 allow an initiated CONSTITUTIONAL amendment, and │ six initiative states allow only statutes: AK, ID, ME, UT, WA, WY. │ └─▶ Illinois holds the amendment power in name and confines it to "structural and │ procedural subjects contained in Article IV" — the legislature itself. │ ⊘ MISSISSIPPI — THE POWER IS IN THE CONSTITUTION AND CANNOT BE EXERCISED. │ Art. 15 § 273(3) caps the signatures from any one congressional district at │ one-fifth of the total required. The section was written in 1992, when the │ state had five districts; it has had FOUR since the 2000 census, so the │ arithmetic ceiling is four times 20 percent, or 80 percent of the requirement. │ Butler v. Watson (Miss. 2021) held that § 273(3) "disables itself" and voided │ the whole process along with Initiative 65. │ [ Restoration has failed in 2022, 2023, 2024, 2025 and 2026. SCR 518 was tabled │ in the Senate on 11 Feb 2026 on an unrecorded voice vote, with no House │ companion. Mississippi filed zero initiatives for 2026. ] │ ├─◆ 1. WHICH INSTRUMENT ⚑ (five routes to one ballot; four of them are petitions) │ ◇ who is putting the question to the voters? │ │ │ ├─ 1a INITIATED CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT ──▶ 18 states. The highest threshold │ │ almost everywhere, and the only citizen instrument a legislature cannot │ │ later repeal by ordinary statute. │ │ │ ├─ 1b INITIATED STATUTE, DIRECT ──▶ 14 states. Signatures, then the ballot. │ │ │ ├─ 1c INITIATED STATUTE, INDIRECT ──▶ 9 states. Signatures, then the LEGISLATURE, │ │ which may enact it, ignore it, or pass something else; only then does a │ │ second petition or an automatic referral carry it to the ballot. │ │ ◈ Michigan's "adopt-and-amend" route turns on who did the enacting: a │ │ legislature that adopts an indirect initiative itself may then amend it │ │ by simple majority, where one the VOTERS passed needs three-quarters. │ │ │ ├─ 1d POPULAR (VETO) REFERENDUM ──▶ 23 states. Its clock is not the election │ │ calendar. It starts when the legislature adjourns or the governor signs, │ │ and the modal window is 90 days. Nebraska and New Mexico require a second, │ │ larger petition to SUSPEND the law in the meantime. │ │ │ └─ 1e LEGISLATIVE REFERRAL ──▶ the fifth route, and the one this map is drawn │ against. ≠ It reaches the same ballot with no petition, and therefore meets │ none of stages 2 through 7. Of the 164 statewide measures on 2026 ballots, │ 53 were citizen-initiated and 111 were referred — 91 of those legislatively │ referred CONSTITUTIONAL amendments, more than every citizen measure of │ every kind put together. │ [ Mid-cycle the gap is wider still: on 9 Jun 2026, 98 of the 121 measures │ then certified were referrals and 23 were initiatives. Referrals are │ locked in when a session adjourns in the spring; petitions qualify in │ July and August. ] │ ├─◆ 2. BEFORE A SINGLE SIGNATURE ⚑ (the gates a referral never reaches) │ │ │ ├─ FILE WITH A NAMED OFFICER. California takes a 2,000-dollar deposit and opens a │ │ 30-day public review period (Elec. Code § 9001). Ohio requires 1,000 valid │ │ signatures merely to file (ORC § 3519.01). Colorado requires a review-and- │ │ comment hearing, and an initiative is withdrawn AUTOMATICALLY if either │ │ designated representative misses a meeting (C.R.S. § 1-40-105). │ │ │ ├─ ◎ THE WORDS VOTERS WILL READ ARE WRITTEN BY SOMEONE ELSE. In roughly twenty │ │ states the circulating title and summary are drafted or approved by an │ │ attorney general, a secretary of state, or a board — not by the sponsor. │ │ Colorado's Title Board is the Secretary of State, the Attorney General and │ │ the director of legislative legal services sitting together, and if no title │ │ can be set the measure cannot be submitted (C.R.S. § 1-40-106). Missouri's │ │ official ballot title is the Secretary's 100-word summary plus the State │ │ Auditor's fiscal note, and it must appear on every sheet before circulation │ │ begins (Mo. Rev. Stat. §§ 116.180, 116.334). Florida's Attorney General MUST │ │ refer the proposal to the state supreme court for an advisory opinion once │ │ sponsors hold 25 percent of the signatures — before anyone knows whether it │ │ will qualify (Fla. Const. art. IV § 10). It is the earliest judicial gate in │ │ the country. │ │ └─▶ and the drafting is litigated as a matter of course. Arkansas gives its │ │ supreme court "original and exclusive jurisdiction" over sufficiency; │ │ Ohio bars challenges inside 95 days of the election; Missouri routes │ │ every one of them to a single circuit court in Cole County. │ │ │ ├─ ☐ A FISCAL NOTE. 21 states and the District of Columbia require one, and in at │ │ least fourteen it must be PRINTED ON THE PETITION — so circulation cannot │ │ begin until an officer the sponsor does not control has written it. │ │ │ ├─ SINGLE SUBJECT. 17 states. Six of them screen BEFORE circulation and can stop │ │ the petition dead: Utah's Lieutenant Governor declines to issue signature │ │ sheets, Colorado's Title Board sets no title, Massachusetts's Attorney │ │ General withholds certification, Ohio's Ballot Board may SPLIT the measure │ │ into separate questions, and the North and South Dakota secretaries of state │ │ may not approve it for circulation at all. │ │ [ North Dakota became the 17th on 9 Jun 2026, when Constitutional Measure 1 │ │ passed 66.4 to 33.6 at the June primary. It is the rare symmetrical │ │ version: it reaches legislative referrals too, and the Secretary of State │ │ screens both. ] │ │ ≠ Arizona's Proposition 129 (2022), Nebraska's Amendment 5A (1998) and │ │ Colorado's Referendum A (1994) each imposed single subject on INITIATIVES │ │ and exempted the legislature's own referrals. All three were referrals. │ │ │ └─ ☐ A READING LEVEL, in two states. Arkansas caps the certified ballot title at │ an eighth-grade Flesch-Kincaid score (Ark. Code § 7-9-107, by HB 1713 of │ 2025). Rhode Island, which has no citizen initiative, applies the same │ standard to the questions its legislature refers. │ ├─◆ 3. THE NUMBER (the same power on paper; a fifty-six-fold difference in its price) │ ◇ a percentage of WHAT? │ ├─ votes cast for GOVERNOR at the last election — the dominant basis, 16 states │ ├─ TOTAL VOTES CAST at the last general election — AK, NV, NM, WY │ ├─ REGISTERED or active voters — ID, NE, UT, and Colorado's distribution leg │ ├─ POPULATION at the last census — North Dakota alone, which is why its numbers │ │ are the lowest in the country and do not move with turnout │ └─ outliers: Colorado counts votes cast for SECRETARY OF STATE; Florida counts the │ last PRESIDENTIAL vote │ ☐ THE 2026 REQUIREMENT FOR AN INITIATED CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT, END TO END: │ Florida 880,062 · California 874,641 · Michigan 446,198 · Ohio 413,487 · │ Arizona 383,923 · Illinois 328,371 · Oklahoma 172,993 · Missouri 170,215 · │ Oregon 156,231 · Nevada 148,788 · Colorado 124,238 · Arkansas 90,704 · │ Montana 60,241 · South Dakota 35,017 · North Dakota 31,164 │ ◈ Florida's figure is fifty-six times North Dakota's statutory-initiative figure │ of 15,582, and the two powers are described in nearly the same words. │ ├─◆ 4. THE MAP INSIDE THE MAP ⚑ (a statewide total is not enough in 17 states) │ The signatures must also be spread across counties or districts, which converts a │ test of popular support into a geographic one and hands the emptiest unit a veto. │ ├─ EVERY unit, no partial compliance ──▶ Nevada, 10 percent in each of all four │ │ congressional districts. Colorado, 2 percent of registered voters in each of │ │ all 35 senate districts, for constitutional amendments only (Amendment 71). │ ├─ MOST units ──▶ Alaska 30 of 40 house districts · Utah 26 of 29 senate districts │ │ · New Mexico 25 of 33 counties, for the referendum · Idaho 18 of 35 │ │ legislative districts · Wyoming 16 of 23 counties │ ├─ A FRACTION of units ──▶ Ohio 44 of 88 counties · Missouri 6 of 8 congressional │ │ districts, and the sponsor picks which six · Nebraska 38 of 93 counties · │ │ Florida half the congressional districts · Arkansas 15 of 75 · Montana 34 of │ │ 100 house districts for a statute, 40 for an amendment │ └─ A CAP rather than a floor ──▶ Massachusetts, no more than a quarter of the │ signatures from any one county · Maryland, no more than a half · Oklahoma, │ no more than 11.5 percent of the requirement from any one county │ § Idaho's version was struck in 2021 after the legislature raised it to all 35 │ districts: a rule giving "every legislative district veto power over │ qualifying initiatives" would trade a feared tyranny of the majority for an │ actual "tyranny of the minority" (Reclaim Idaho v. Denney). The court restored │ 18 of 35 and did not say whether 18 is itself constitutional. │ § Arkansas raised its county floor from 15 to 50 by Act 236 of 2023, and a state │ judge struck it on 12 Feb 2026 as conflicting with the constitution's own "at │ least fifteen counties." The identical rule SURVIVED a federal First Amendment │ challenge four months later. One rule, two courts, opposite answers. │ └─▶ and the direction of travel is not uniform. Nebraska's 38-county rule was │ UPHELD in Eggers v. Evnen (8th Cir. 2022) on the ground that initiative │ ballot access is not a fundamental right — the opposite of Idaho's premise, │ in a neighbouring circuit. │ ├─◆ 5. CIRCULATION (21 of the 26 states regulate the person holding the clipboard) │ ├─ WHO MAY CIRCULATE — six states still require state RESIDENCY (AR, FL, ID, MS, │ │ ND, OK); nine require citizenship; seven require the circulator to be a │ │ registered voter; most require 18 or older; Arizona, Oregon, Florida and │ │ Missouri add conviction bars. │ │ § Residency requirements have fallen in South Dakota (2023), Montana (2022), │ │ Maine (2022), Alaska (2017), Ohio (2013), Oklahoma (2008) and Arizona │ │ (2008) — and been UPHELD in North Dakota (8th Cir. 1998) and, in effect, │ │ in Florida, where the Eleventh Circuit stayed an injunction against the │ │ 2025 ban on 10 Sep 2025. │ ├─ HOW THEY MAY BE PAID — ten states ban paying by the signature: AZ, AR, FL, MT, │ │ ND, OK, OR, SD, UT, WY. Nebraska expressly permits it. │ │ § Those bans have been struck in Ohio (6th Cir. 2008), Washington, Colorado, │ │ Mississippi and Alaska. │ ├─ WHAT THEY MUST DISCLOSE — paid circulators register with the state in Arizona, │ │ Florida, Missouri, Colorado and Montana; wear a badge in Colorado, Utah and │ │ Idaho; and Nebraska requires the words in large red lettering on the sheet. │ │ § Buckley v. American Constitutional Law Foundation (1999) struck Colorado's │ │ registered-voter requirement and its name badge; Michigan's paid- │ │ circulator affidavit fell in 2022. │ └─ HOW LONG THEY HAVE — 90 days in Oklahoma · 180 in California, Colorado and │ Michigan · 365 in five states · 730 in Arizona, Florida, Nebraska, Oregon │ and Arkansas · and no statutory limit at all in Ohio. │ ├─◆ 6. VERIFICATION, AND THE CURE THAT ALMOST NOWHERE EXISTS ⚑ │ ◇ sample, or count every one? │ ├─ A RANDOM SAMPLE AND A THREE-BAND RULE ──▶ California, Missouri and Colorado all │ │ use one shape: a projection above 110 percent of the requirement qualifies │ │ outright, one below 90 or 95 percent fails outright, and in between every │ │ signature is verified individually (Cal. Elec. Code §§ 9030-9035; Mo. Rev. │ │ Stat. §§ 116.120-116.150; C.R.S. § 1-40-116). │ ├─ A FULL REVIEW ──▶ Alaska, Arkansas, Florida, Idaho, Maine, Massachusetts, │ │ Michigan, Nebraska, Ohio, Oklahoma, Utah, Wyoming. │ ├─ ☐ A CURE PERIOD EXISTS IN TWO STATES. Arkansas allows 30 days to gather more, │ │ and only if the first count reached 75 percent of the requirement. Ohio │ │ allows 10 days, once, and a petition that still falls short cannot be │ │ resubmitted. Colorado had 15 days and repealed them in 2021. │ └─ ◈ EVERYWHERE ELSE A SHORT PETITION IS DEAD FOR THE CYCLE — and so is a petition │ that is long enough and wrongly formatted. Arkansas's Secretary of State │ voided ALL 108,837 signatures on the 2026 Ballot Measure Rights Amendment in │ late July 2026, principally because 19,924 pages carried the popular name │ "The Ballot Measure Rights Amendment of 2026" rather than the Attorney │ General's approved "The Arkansas Ballot Measure Rights Amendment." The │ Arkansas Supreme Court dismissed the challenge on 19 Aug 2026. │ ├─◆ 7. THE PRE-ELECTION CHALLENGE (a certified measure is not yet a safe measure) │ Someone asks an officer or a court to take the question off the ballot before a │ vote is held. The 2026 record runs in both directions, state by state: │ ├─ NEBRASKA ✕ — the Secretary of State removed a citizen amendment that would │ │ have required a four-fifths legislative vote to alter an approved │ │ initiative, on the SINGLE-SUBJECT ground, after more than 186,000 signatures │ │ were filed on 2 Jul 2026. The Nebraska Supreme Court upheld him on │ │ 10 Sep 2026. │ ├─ OKLAHOMA ✕ — the state supreme court struck State Question 843 before the │ │ election, 5 to 4, for conflict with the constitution's own 11-percent │ │ assessment floor. The majority declined to reach single subject; the chief │ │ justice dissented against the court acting as a "pre-election gatekeeper." │ ├─ MISSOURI ★ — the state supreme court went the other way on 3 Sep 2026, ordering │ │ the "Respect Missouri Voters" initiative onto the ballot as Amendment 6 and │ │ finding the Secretary of State's multiple-subject objection meritless and, │ │ in most respects, unripe before an election. │ └─ COLORADO ★ — the state supreme court affirmed on 30 Oct 2026 that paid- │ circulator registration defects do not keep a qualified measure off the │ ballot, and that the votes on Amendment 87 "shall be counted." │ ├─◆ 8. THE VOTE ★ ◇ a majority of WHAT? │ ├─ of the votes cast on the question — the default, and most states │ ├─ ☐ A SUPERMAJORITY ──▶ Florida 60 percent of votes on the measure, and │ │ two-thirds for one imposing a new state tax or fee (art. XI §§ 5(e), 7) · │ │ Colorado 55 percent for a constitutional amendment, except one that only │ │ REMOVES language · Illinois three-fifths of the votes on the question or a │ │ majority of everyone voting in the election · Arizona 60 percent for a │ │ measure approving a tax · Washington 60 percent, for gambling only │ ├─ ☐ A CONCURRENT MAJORITY ──▶ Nebraska, a majority and at least 35 percent of the │ │ total vote cast at that election · Massachusetts, 30 percent · Wyoming, a │ │ majority of ALL ballots cast, so a blank ballot counts as a no │ └─ ≠ NEVADA, THE SHARPEST ASYMMETRY ON THE PAGE ──▶ a CITIZEN constitutional │ amendment must be approved at TWO consecutive general elections (art. 19 │ § 2(4)). A LEGISLATIVELY REFERRED one needs two legislatures and ONE popular │ vote (art. 16 § 1). │ ◈ These thresholds do their real work in the years when nobody is arguing about │ them. On 3 Nov 2026 Florida's Amendment 2 took 58 percent and failed, and │ Colorado's Amendment 85 took 51 percent and failed. │ ├─◆ 9. AFTER THE VOTERS SAY YES ⚑ (the stage with no equivalent in any other map) │ An initiated STATUTE is a statute, and in most initiative states the legislature │ may amend or repeal it like any other. │ ├─ FREELY, BY SIMPLE MAJORITY, IMMEDIATELY ──▶ Missouri, Colorado, Montana, Ohio, │ │ Oklahoma, Oregon, South Dakota, Idaho, Maine, Massachusetts, Utah │ ├─ ONLY BY SUPERMAJORITY ──▶ Michigan three-quarters · Arkansas and Nebraska │ │ two-thirds · Washington two-thirds for two years · North Dakota two-thirds │ │ for seven │ ├─ ONLY AFTER A WAIT ──▶ Nevada three years · Alaska and Wyoming bar REPEAL for │ │ two years and allow AMENDMENT at any time by simple majority, which is the │ │ same power under another name │ └─ ONLY BY GOING BACK TO THE VOTERS ──▶ Arizona's Voter Protection Act: repeal │ requires a popular vote, and an amendment must further the measure's own │ purpose AND carry three-quarters of each house. California: no amendment or │ repeal without submitting it to the voters, unless the measure itself waived │ the protection. │ ◈ WORKED EXAMPLES, AND THE PATTERN IS THE INSTRUMENT AND NOT THE SUBJECT. │ Missouri's Proposition A passed in November 2024 with 58 percent and its │ paid-sick-leave provision was repealed by HB 567, signed 10 Jul 2025, within │ eight months — Missouri imposes no wait and no supermajority. Ohio's Issue 2 │ passed in 2023 with 57 percent and Senate Bill 56, signed 19 Dec 2025, removed │ its employment, custody, medical-care and tenancy protections for adult-use │ consumers. Utah's Proposition 4 was repealed and replaced outright by SB 200 │ in 2020. │ § And the one limit a court has drawn: government-reform initiatives are │ "constitutionally protected from unfettered legislative amendment, repeal, or │ replacement" in Utah, which is what the Proposition 4 repeal produced │ (League of Women Voters of Utah v. Utah State Legislature, 2024). │ ≠ Where a legislature cannot repeal, it re-refers. Missouri's Amendment 3 of 2024 │ was a constitutional amendment and beyond statutory reach, so the 2025 │ legislature put a replacement on the 2026 ballot as HJR 73 — using the one │ route onto that ballot which needs no signatures at all. It was defeated on │ 3 Nov 2026, 55.5 percent to 44.5. │ └─◆ 10. STATE OF PLAY [ dated — the only part of this map that goes stale in a cycle ] At least EIGHT statewide measures about the initiative process itself were on 2026 ballots, the most since 2000. Every restriction put to a November electorate lost, and both measures protecting the power won. ├─ DEFEATED ✕ — North Dakota Constitutional Measure 1, a 60-percent threshold for │ every constitutional amendment: 43.5 to 56.5 · South Dakota Amendment L, the │ same proposal: 42 to 58 · Utah Amendment B, 60 percent for tax-raising │ initiatives: 38 to 62 · Idaho HJR 4, reserving drug legalisation to the │ legislature alone: 33.9 to 66.1 · Missouri Amendment 4, requiring a majority │ in every congressional district, on 4 Aug 2026: 20 to 80. All five were │ legislative referrals. ├─ APPROVED ★ — Missouri Amendment 6, 60 to 40, making initiative and referendum a │ fundamental right and requiring an 80-percent vote of both chambers PLUS │ voter approval to alter a citizen initiative · Montana CI-133, 65 to 35, │ moving the power into the Declaration of Rights and subjecting any abridgment │ to strict scrutiny. Both were citizen initiatives. └─ ◈ AND THE TWO RESTRICTIONS THAT ACTUALLY TOOK EFFECT IN 2026 NEVER FACED A NOVEMBER ELECTORATE AT ALL. North Dakota's single-subject rule passed at the June primary on 116,136 votes — half the 233,606 cast on its November successor. Arkansas's and Nebraska's measures to protect the initiative power were killed at stages 6 and 7, by a popular-name mismatch and by a single-subject ruling, with no vote taken on either. [ All November 2026 figures are unofficial; no state had certified as of 7 Nov 2026. California's Propositions 41 and 43, both of which would add requirements aimed at citizen tax initiatives, were trailing with about two-thirds counted. ] ``` ## Notes - **Why the gates matter more than the thresholds.** The signature number is the part of this process everyone argues about, and it is not where most petitions die. A sponsor who can see the number can plan against it; Florida's 880,062 is brutal but it is published, dated and fixed. What kills petitions is the part a sponsor cannot plan against: a title written by an officer who may rewrite it, a fiscal note that must be printed before circulation can begin, a subject-matter screen applied by a secretary of state before a single sheet is issued, a distribution rule that makes the emptiest county decisive, and — in every state but two — the absence of any way to fix a defect once the submission is in. The 2026 Arkansas case is the cleanest illustration in the record: the petition cleared the number, and all 108,837 signatures were voided because 19,924 pages carried a popular name three words different from the one the Attorney General had approved. - **The asymmetry between the two routes is written down, not inferred.** Three states imposed a single-subject rule on citizen initiatives by a measure that exempted the legislature's own referrals from the same rule — Arizona's Proposition 129 in 2022, Nebraska's Amendment 5A in 1998, Colorado's Referendum A in 1994 — and all three were themselves legislative referrals. North Dakota's Constitutional Measure 1, approved at the June 2026 primary, is the rare symmetrical version: it applies the rule to referred amendments as well, and makes the Secretary of State the screen for both. That is one state out of seventeen with the rule. - **Mississippi is a right that failed on arithmetic.** The state's constitution reserves the initiative power and, in the same section, caps the signatures countable from any one congressional district at a fifth of the total required. The provision was drafted in 1992 when there were five districts. There have been four since the 2000 census, so the most a sponsor can ever assemble is four fifths of what the section demands. [[Butler v. Watson]] held in 2021 that the section "disables itself," and the only cure is a constitutional amendment the legislature must refer. Five consecutive sessions have failed to refer one; the 2026 attempt was tabled on an unrecorded voice vote with no companion in the other chamber. A reader should take from this that a procedural rule and a repeal can be the same thing. - **The courts are not moving in one direction, and two of them disagree inside one circuit's footprint.** Idaho's supreme court treated the initiative as a fundamental right and struck an all-districts distribution rule in 2021 as a "tyranny of the minority." The Eighth Circuit upheld Nebraska's thirty-eight-county rule in 2022 on the express ground that initiative ballot access is *not* a fundamental right. Arkansas's fifty-county rule survived a federal First Amendment challenge in June 2026 and had already been struck by a state judge in February 2026 under Arkansas's own constitution — the same rule, two courts, opposite answers, four months apart. A reader looking for a national doctrine here will not find one; what exists is fifty-one bodies of law and a federal floor that is thin and contested. - **What this map deliberately leaves open.** (1) Whether the 7.6 percent certification rate reflects screening or self-selection — the 692 filings include measures withdrawn, abandoned and aimed at a later cycle, and no source separates a petition that failed a gate from one that was never seriously pursued. The figure is carried as Ballotpedia's with its own caveat attached. (2) How the 2026 measures were ultimately approved or defeated as a class: no post-election breakdown of approval rates for citizen initiatives against legislative referrals had been published when this map was drawn, so the comparison is made on what reached the ballot rather than on what passed. (3) Whether the federal suit seeking to restore Mississippi's initiative power through the redistricting case that destroyed it is still live; the last reporting found is from 2021 and no docket was read. (4) Whether Oklahoma's 2025 county-cap and pay-per-signature law survived the challenge argued in its supreme court in November 2025, which was still undecided as far as the sources read for this page could establish. - **Officeholder verification.** This map names no current officeholder, which is deliberate: offices and seats appear, occupants do not, so nothing in the fence decays when a secretary of state changes. The two individuals who do appear in the Notes appear only as the authors of dated acts. Every count, percentage, statutory citation and case date was checked in the first week of November 2026 against the source identified beside it; the November 2026 vote shares are unofficial returns and no state had certified. - **A caution on the vote shares.** Stage 10 reports unofficial counts. California's two measures were still counting with roughly a third of the ballots outstanding, and Colorado's Amendment 85 sat a point above a simple majority and several below the 55 percent it needed. Figures in that block will move; the pass or fail calls for North Dakota, South Dakota, Utah, Idaho and the two approved measures were decided by margins wide enough that they will not. ## See also - [[How a Candidate Gets on the Ballot]] — the same problem for a person: four tracks, the filing window, and a removal challenge decided in days - [[How a State Legislature Makes Law]] — the body that writes the rules on this map, and the fifth route onto the same ballot drawn from the inside: how a bill becomes state law, why the attrition rate is nearly identical at 9.0 percent, and the referral threshold that is the whole of what stage 0 of that route requires - [[2026 Ballot Measures Hub]] — what was actually on the 2026 ballots, measure by measure and subject by subject - [[Direct Democracy]] — the underlying form of government, and the wiki's entry point for the idea - [[Ballot Access]] — the doctrine the First Amendment half of stages 5 and 7 runs on - [[Single-Subject Rule]] — the screen at stage 2, and the instrument that removed a Nebraska measure in 2026 - [[Butler v. Watson]] — the 2021 ruling that voided an entire state's initiative process - [[Buckley v. American Constitutional Law Foundation]] — the federal limit on regulating the people who carry petitions - [[Reclaim Idaho v. Denney]] · [[Eggers v. Evnen]] — the two distribution-rule cases that point in opposite directions - [[Voter Protection Act]] — Arizona's answer to stage 9, and the strongest post-passage protection in the country - [[State Election Administration Tree]] — who the named officers at stages 2 and 6 actually are, state by state - [[How a Midterm Election Is Certified]] — the same pipeline after the votes are cast - [[Post-Dobbs Ballot Measures]] — the 2022–2024 wave that made the initiative a national battleground - [[Ballotpedia]] · [[Richard Winger]] — the two source streams most of the counts on this map come from - [[League of Women Voters]] — the plaintiff in the Arkansas litigation at stages 4 and 5 - [[Elections Clause]] — the constitutional footing for the federal half of this lane - [[Foundations Hub]] · [[2026 Midterms Hub]]