Forms of direct democracy in the American states

Ballot Basics
Amendments
Citizen initiatives Indirect initiative Legislative referrals
Statutes
Citizen initiatives Indirect initiative Legislative referrals
Advisory question
Automatic ballot referral
Bond issue
Combined
Commission referred
Recall
Veto referendum

The seven generally acknowledged forms of direct democracy are the legislatively-referred constitutional amendment, the legislatively-referred state statute, the initiated state statute (direct or indirect), the initiated constitutional amendment, the veto referendum (sometimes called the citizen referendum or the statute referendum), the statute affirmation (available only in Nevada), and statewide recall.

• Eight states enable the six most common forms of direct democracy. Those seven states are Arizona, California, Colorado, Michigan, Montana, Nevada (which also has the statute affirmation), North Dakota and Oregon.
• The chart below doesn't include the statute affirmation as a category since it is only available in one state. The chart also doesn't include the form of direct democracy under which citizen petitions can be used to impanel grand juries, an option that exists in six states.
• Delaware is the only state whose citizens are not empowered to ratify or reject legislatively-referred constitutional amendments at the ballot box.
• Note that research on which states allow legislatively-referred state statutes and under what terms has not been verified by multiple sources and in the view of Ballotpedia staff as of March 2011, needs additional exploration.

State	Legislatively referred statute	Legislatively referred amendment	Initiated statute (direct or indirect)	Initiated amendment	Veto referendum	Recall
Alabama	d	a	d	d	d	d
Alaska	d	a	a	d	a	a
Arizona	a	a	a	a	a	a
Arkansas	a	a	a	a	a	d
California	a	a	a	a	a	a
Colorado	a	a	a	a	a	a
Connecticut	d	a	d	d	d	d
Delaware	a	d	d	d	d	d
Florida	d	a	d	a	d	d
Georgia	d	a	d	d	d	a
Hawaii	d	a	d	d	d	d
Idaho	a	a	a	d	a	a
Illinois	a	a	d	a (Limited)	d	d
Indiana	d	a	d	d	d	d
Iowa	d	a	d	d	d	d
Kansas	d	a	d	d	d	a
Kentucky	a	a	d	d	d	d
Louisiana	d	a	d	d	d	a
Maine	a	a	a	d	a	d
Maryland	a	a	d	d	a	d
Massachusetts	a	a	a	a	a	d
Michigan	a	a	a	a	a	a
Minnesota	d	a	d	d	d	a
Mississippi	d	a	d	a	d	d
Missouri	a	a	a	a	a	d
Montana	a	a	a	a	a	a
Nebraska	a	a	a	a	a	d
Nevada	a	a	a	a	a	a
New Hampshire	d	a	d	d	d	d
New Jersey	d	a	d	d	d	a
New Mexico	a	a	d	d	a	d
New York	d	a	d	d	d	d
North Carolina	d	a	d	d	d	d
North Dakota	a	a	a	a	a	a
Ohio	a	a	a	a	a	d
Oklahoma	a	a	a	a	a	d
Oregon	a	a	a	a	a	a
Pennsylvania	d	a	d	d	d	d
Rhode Island	d	a	d	d	d	a
South Carolina	d	a	d	d	d	d
South Dakota	a	a	a	a	a	d
Tennessee	d	a	d	d	d	d
Texas	d	a	d	d	d	d
Utah	a	a	a	d	a	d
Vermont	d	a	d	d	d	d
Virginia	d	a	d	d	d	d
Washington	a	a	a	d	a	a
West Virginia	d	a	d	d	d	d
Wisconsin	d	a	d	d	d	a
Wyoming	d	a	a	d	a	a
TOTALS	24	49	21	18	25	18

External links

• Chart of direct democracy options available by state