The Ballot Measure Scorecard lists statewide ballot measures certified for elections in 2018, along with indirect initiated measures that were approved by legislatures.

The Scorecard filters certified initiatives based on type of ballot measure.

Certified for ballot

2018 ballot measure overview →

Statewide ballot measures were listed here once they had officially qualified or been scheduled to appear on the ballot. All statewide measures are listed by election date, including citizen initiatives, veto referendums, legislatively referred constitutional amendments, legislatively referred state statutes, legislatively referred bond questions, commission referrals, and automatic referrals. Measures that were certified for the ballot could still be removed from the ballot by a court ruling.

January 23

Oregon Measure 101, Healthcare Insurance Premiums Tax for Medicaid Referendum (January 2018) a

April 3

Wisconsin Question 1, Elimination of State Treasurer Amendment (April 2018) d

June 5

June 26

August 7

Missouri Proposition A, Right to Work Referendum (August 2018) d

November 6

Signatures submitted

Proposed ballot initiatives were listed here when the initiatives' sponsors had turned in their petition signatures to election authorities, but the petitions had not been certified for the ballot. In some states, signature submission can take place over a long period of time and signatures can be submitted in multiple batches or must be submitted as they are collected. Only initiatives for which the signature submission process is complete are listed below.

The time it takes election authorities to scrutinize signatures that have been turned in so they can certify a measure for the ballot varies from state to state, averaging about 4-6 weeks.

Signatures filed, certification pending

Since the 2018 election cycle is over, no initiatives remain in this phase.

Certified to the legislature

See also: Indirect initiative

This phase of the initiative process only applies to indirect initiatives.

Ballot initiatives in states that feature an indirect initiative process must go before the state legislature after signatures are submitted and enough of the submitted signatures are found to be valid. This presentation to the legislature is an intermediate step for successful signature petition drives between when an initiative petition is found to be sufficient and certification for the ballot. In some states with an indirect initiative process, the legislature can approve the proposed law themselves or put it before voters. In other states, the legislature has the chance to propose alternatives or amendments to the initiatives that can appear alongside the citizen initiative on the ballot.

Initiatives in this phase of the process were listed below. Since the 2018 election cycle is over, no initiatives remain in this phase.

Approved by the legislature

This phase of the initiative process only applies to indirect initiatives.

Ballot initiatives in states that feature an indirect initiative process must go before the state legislature after signatures are submitted and enough of the submitted signatures are found to be valid. This presentation to the legislature is an intermediate step for successful signature petition drives between when an initiative petition is found to be sufficient and certification for the ballot. In some states with an indirect initiative process, the legislature can approve the proposed law themselves or put it before voters. In other states, the legislature has the chance to propose alternatives or amendments to the initiatives that can appear alongside the citizen initiative on the ballot. In some states, there are certain rules, such as legislative alteration rules, that don't apply if the legislature approves the initiative rather than putting it before voters.

Successful 2018 initiative petitions that were previously certified to the legislature and that were approved by the legislature instead of being put on the ballot are listed below:

Amendments

All states but Delaware require voter approval of proposed changes to the state constitutions, which can be put on the ballot by state legislators, through initiative signature petitions, by constitutional convention delegates, and by the unique Florida Constitution Revision Commission. There are rare scenarios in which technical and non-substantive changes can be made to state constitutions without voter approval. All proposals to amend state constitutions that require statewide voter approval are listed here. This list includes initiated constitutional amendments (in the first section), legislatively referred constitutional amendments (in the second section), and commission referrals (in the third section). This section would also contain amendments referred to the ballot by a constitutional convention if there were any in 2018.

The list does not include proposed constitutional amendments of local applicability that only required local voter approval. It also does not include amendments that did not require voter approval.

Initiated amendments

What's an initiated amendment? →

Legislatively referred amendments

What's a referred amendment? →

Commission referred amendments

Changes to the length of state constitutions

In 2018, voters in 25 states approved changes to their state constitutions. Together, the 25 state constitutions increased a combined 42,696 words. The following chart illustrates changes to the length of state constitutions as a result of voter-approved amendments:

Statutes

Most statutes that go before voters are put on the ballot by a citizen initiative petition. While state legislators can refer state statutes to the voters in certain states, they generally don't have to as they do with proposed constitutional amendments. In Arizona and California, voter approval is required for statutory changes of laws previously approved through a citizen initiative. The list below includes both initiated state statutes and legislatively referred state statutes that were on ballots in 2018.

Initiated statutes

What's an initiated statute? →

Referred statutes

What's a referred statute? →

Veto referendums

A veto referendum is a type of citizen-initiated measure. But, instead of proposing a new law, a veto referendum is used by petitioners to seek the repeal of a law passed by the state legislature. The power of veto referendum is also referred to as people's veto.

What's a veto referendum or a people's veto? →

Referred bond issues

In some states, the legislature is able to or even required to put certain proposed bond issues before voters. This section lists legislatively referred bond questions. It does not list other types of measures that happened to propose the issuance of bonds or other indebtedness. For example, initiated constitutional amendments or initiated state statutes that were put on the ballot proposing the issuance of bonds are listed under the sections of this article about initiated constitutional amendments and initiated state statutes, respectively. To see a full list of all statewide measures proposing the issuance of bonds, regardless of what type of measure was used, click here.

What's a bond issue? →

Automatic referrals

Some measures are referred to the ballot automatically by a provision of a state constitution or state law. One common type of automatic referral is a constitutional convention question periodically asking voters in a state if they want a constitutional convention to be held to consider revisions to the state constitution.

What's an automatic referral?→

Hawaii Constitutional Convention Question (2018) d

Ballot Measure Scorecard, 2018

Contents

Certified for ballot

January 23

April 3

June 5

June 26

August 7

November 6

Signatures submitted

Signatures filed, certification pending

Certified to the legislature

Approved by the legislature

Amendments

Initiated amendments

Legislatively referred amendments

Commission referred amendments

Changes to the length of state constitutions

Statutes

Initiated statutes

Referred statutes

Veto referendums

Referred bond issues

Automatic referrals

See also

Information about voting

2026 Elections

2025 Elections

Election analysis

Trending

Public Policy

Information for candidates

Get Engaged

Services

Additional analysis

SITE NAVIGATION