Daily Brew: December 12, 2025
Welcome to the Friday, Dec. 12, Brew.
By: Briana Ryan
Here’s what’s in store for you as you start your day:
- 2025 had the most local ballot measures in major cities and state capitals since 2017
- Another way of looking at Mount Everest, by Leslie Graves, Ballotpedia Founder and CEO
- Two 2026 candidate filing deadlines are left this year in North Carolina, Mississippi
2025 had the most local ballot measures in major cities and capitals since 2017
In 2025, 322 local measures were on ballots in the 100 most populous U.S. cities and in state capitals. These measures included citywide, countywide, special district, and school district measures.
The 322 local measures appeared in 29 different states on 21 different election dates. That’s the most local measures for any odd-numbered year since we started following measures in the most populous cities in 2018 and state capitals in 2021. Voters approved 258 (80.1%) and defeated 64 (19.9%).
Texas had the most local measures, with 91, or 28.3% of the total. Arizona came in second, with 40 measures, and Louisiana came in third, with 32 measures.
Local referrals are more common than initiatives — in 2025, 12 of the 322 local measures were citizen initiatives. Local legislative bodies put the rest of those measures on the ballot.
Bond measures were the most common issues on local ballots. Other common topics included property tax and zoning, land use, and development.
There were 135 bond measures on the ballot this year in the most populous cities and state capitals. Voters approved 103 and defeated 32. In total, voters approved $14.6 billion in bond issuance.
Click here to check out our full analysis of the 2025 local measures in the 100 most populous U.S. cities and state capitals.
Another way of looking at Mount Everest
I’m an avid reader, and I'm currently attempting to read what are generally considered the foundational pieces of literature for various countries and cultures.
This month, my reading journey has taken me to Finland, where I’ve discovered the book The Brothers Seven, a novel written in 1870 by Aleksis Kivi. For those who haven’t heard of this book, the summary description of it at Amazon says it’s:
…one of the most (in)famously unknown classics of world literature—unknown not only because so few people in the world can read Finnish, but also because the novel is so incredibly difficult to translate, the Mount Everest of translating from Finnish.
That phrase “Mount Everest of translating from Finnish” struck home. Inside Balltopedia, we call this weekly column “Mount Everest” because it describes the incredible challenge we face in reaching our 10-year goal of providing robust information on more than 500,000 candidates — federal, state, and local — to every voter at every election.
We want to provide voters with more than just the basic information about a candidate — their name, the office they are running for, the date of the election, and the location where it is being held.
Finding and publishing that information is just the beginning. I call it our Mount Everest base camp.
We also want to provide voters with enough information about each candidate that they have a pretty good idea of who they want to vote for — that’s the robust information I’ve written about before.
This year, we were able to provide that level of information for about 10% of the candidates we covered in 26 states. Next year, we’re expanding that to providing robust information on 50% of the candidates we cover in 32 states. We plan to add four to six states each year beyond that, along with higher percentages of candidates, to our robust coverage list.
With the proper resources and staffing, we think we can achieve our goal of covering every candidate, in every state, for every office, in every election year.
That’s reaching the top of Mount Everest.
Telling you about this goal, illustrating the types of information we’re gathering, and explaining the reasons we do it is one thing. But sometimes the climb from base camp to summit is best told in a picture, like this one our communications team created:
This is what our goal looks like. This is the picture of what we’re trying to achieve when we talk about robust information.
And the best thing about this great picture? We’re already filling in the blanks for millions of voters, giving them the information they need to make choices that reflect their values and priorities.
The completed picture on the right is the goal — and we can make it happen — with the help and support of readers like you.
Two 2026 candidate filing deadlines are left this year in North Carolina, Mississippi
As the year comes to a close, the 2026 election season is well underway. Over the last couple of months, the earliest 2026 candidate filing deadlines have passed in Illinois (Nov. 3), Arkansas (Nov. 12), and Texas (Dec. 8).
The two final 2026 statewide candidate filing deadlines of this year will take place in North Carolina and Mississippi. North Carolina’s deadline for partisan candidates to file for the March 3, 2026, primary is Dec. 19, 2025, and Mississippi’s deadline for partisan candidates to file for the March 10, 2026, primary is Dec. 26, 2025.
Candidates must meet various state-specific filing requirements and deadlines to appear on primary and general election ballots. These regulations, known as ballot access laws, determine whether and how candidates can make it onto the ballot. These laws are set at the state level and apply to candidates running for state and federal offices.
Click here to read more about candidate filing deadlines for the upcoming midterm elections.
