Forms of direct democracy in the American states

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

The generally acknowledged forms of direct democracy at the statewide level 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 states are Arizona, California, Colorado, Michigan, Montana, Nevada (which also has the statute affirmation), North Dakota and Oregon.
• The chart below does not 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.
• The chart below also does not include local direct democracy, such as initiated ordinances, initiated charter amendments, or town meetings.
• Delaware is the only state in which voter approval is not required for constitutional amendments passed by the legislature.
• 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	23	18

External links

Chart of direct democracy options available by state
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