FieldWorks

Petition Companies

FieldWorks is a company that offers signature gathering services to ballot initiative campaigns.

About

FieldWorks was founded in 2001 by Laurie Moskowitz and Susan Blad Seldin in Washington, DC. On its website, the company said, "Whether it’s an advocacy campaign, a ballot initiative to qualify or defeat, a neighborhood-by-neighborhood political battle, an online to offline strategy, or a long-term image-building plan, FieldWorks delivers results with a simple philosophy: Identify who needs to be persuaded and communicate with them directly in the most effective way possible."

Petition drives

The following ballot measures appeared on the ballot after the sponsoring campaign committee hired FieldWorks to collect signatures. Since 2016, 32 ballot measures appeared on the ballot after the sponsoring committee(s) hired FieldWorks to gather signatures. Of the 32 measures that appeared on the ballot, 25 were approved and seven were defeated. Sponsoring committees paid a total of $58,028,572.23 (an average of $1.8 million per ballot measure) for FieldWorks' signature gathering services.

Ballot measures (2016-2022)

Year	Measure	Measure description	Total cost	Signatures required	CPRS	Outcome
2016	Colorado Amendment 70	Increase in minimum wage	$881,263.52	98,492	$8.95	a
2016	Maine Question 1	Legalize marijuana for personal use	$343,875.16	61,123	$5.63	a
2016	Maine Question 2	3 percent tax on household income over $200,000	$479,956.80	61,123	$7.85	a
2016	Maine Question 3	Background checks for gun sales and transfers	$572,094.87	61,123	$9.36	d
2016	Missouri Amendment 3	Increase the tax on cigarettes by 60 cents	$546,785.27	157,788	$3.47	d
2016	Nevada Question 1	Background checks for gun purchases	$1,241,889.51	101,667	$12.22	a
2016	Nevada Question 3	Regulations on the energy market	$405,259.96	55,234	$7.34	a
2016	Oregon Measure 99	Create an "Outdoor School Education Fund"	$595,599.54	88,184	$6.75	a
2016	Oregon Measure 100	Prohibit the sale of products from 12 species of endangered animals	$367,060.00	88,184	$4.16	a
2018	Arizona Proposition 127	Requires 50 percent of energy to come from renewable resources by 2030	$5,843,652.00	225,963	$25.86	d
2018	Colorado Proposition 111	Restricts payday loan charges	$1,274,439	98,492	$12.94	a
2018	Idaho Proposition 1	Allows betting on historical horse races at video terminals in certain locations	$1,251,549.68	56,192	$22.27	d
2018	Michigan Proposal 3	Creates state constitutional rights to certain voting policies	$2,258,871.43	315,654	$7.16	a
2018	Missouri Proposition B	Increases the minimum wage to $12	$686,714.90	100,126	$6.86	a
2018	Missouri Amendment 2	Legalizes marijuana for medical purposes	$530,296.96	160,199	$3.31	a
2018	Missouri Amendment 1	Addresses lobbying, campaign finance, and redistricting procedures	$1,082,515.83	160,199	$6.76	a
2018	Missouri Proposition A	Approval upholds Senate Bill 19, a right to work law; defeat rejects the law.	$776,494.17	100,126	$7.76	d
2018	Nebraska Initiative 427	Expands Medicaid under the ACA	$727,178.67	84,908	$8.56	a
2018	Nevada Question 3	Regulations on the energy market	$405,259.96	55,234	$7.34	d
2018	Nevada Question 6	Requires 50 percent of energy to come from renewable resources by 2030	$1,402,142.75	112,543	$12.46	a
2020	Colorado Proposition 118	Establishes a program for paid medical and family leave	$2,229,000.00	124,632	$17.88	a
2020	Missouri Amendment 2	Expands Medicaid under the ACA	$207,880.00	160,199	$1.30	a
2020	Montana CI-118	Authorizes the legislature or a citizen initiative to set a legal age for marijuana purchase, use, and possession	$1,232,445.93	50,936	$24.20	a
2020	Montana I-190	Legalizes marijuana for individuals over the age of 21 and taxes the sale of non-medical marijuana at a rate of 20 percent	$607,025.61	25,468	$23.83	a
2020	Nebraska Initiative 428	Limits the interest rate that payday lenders charge to 36 percent per year	$322,090.40	85,628	$3.76	a
2020	Nevada Question 6	Requires utilities to acquire 50 percent of their electricity from renewable resources by 2030	$1,402,142.75	112,543	$12.46	a
2020	Oklahoma State Question 802	Expands Medicaid in Oklahoma to certain low-income adults between 18 and 65 with incomes below 133% of the federal poverty level	$1,836,261.73	177,958	$10.32	a
2020	Oklahoma State Question 805	Prohibits a convicted person's former felony convictions from being used to calculate future punishments; provides for sentence modifications for eligible persons	$1,413,445.59	177,958	$7.94	d
2022	Michigan Proposal 3	Provides a state constitutional right to reproductive freedom	$9,594,991.24	425,059	$22.57	a
2022	Michigan Proposal 2	Added certain voting rights and policies to the state constitution	$7,805,198.76	425,059	$18.36	a
2022	Missouri Amendment 3	Legalized adult-use marijuana in Missouri	$3,659,401.28	171,592	$18.36	a
2022	Arizona Proposition 209	Set a limit on interest rates for debt accrued from receiving healthcare services; increased the amount of value for certain property and earnings exempt from attachment, execution, forced sale, and any other debt collection processes	$6,045,788.96	237,645	$21.33	a

This chart was last updated after statewide ballot measure elections in 2022.

Ballot initiative signature costs

See also: Laws governing the initiative process and Analysis of signature costs in past years

The cost of getting an initiative before voters varies widely by state and by initiative proposal. The requirements and restrictions imposed by state law form a major factor in the expense of an initiative signature petition effort.

Higher signature requirements are a straightforward example of a reason an initiative petition campaign might be more expensive in one state than in another. Other restrictions that can make a difference in the cost of a petition campaign include:

• Distribution requirements - It is easier and less expensive to collect a lot of signatures in one very populous area than a small number of signatures from lots of smaller, less-populated areas.
• Pay-per-signature bans - Paying signature gatherers by signature is one of the most cost-efficient ways to fund signature gathering efforts.
• Restrictions on circulators - Restricting who can collect signatures limits competition between petition companies and professional signature gatherers.
• Initiative petition circulation periods - If proponents have less time to collect signatures, the process can be more expensive.

Measuring the cost

See also: Analysis of signature costs in past years

Ballotpedia uses two ways to measure the cost of an initiative or veto referendum petition drive.

1. According to the total cost of gathering the required signatures to put the initiative or veto referendum on the ballot
2. According to the total cost divided by the number of signatures required to qualify the measure for the ballot or Cost Per Required Signature (CPRS)

Total cost: The total cost depends on all of the factors that can make a petition effort more or less expensive, including the population of the state and the state's signature requirements. This measurement does not necessarily indicate how difficult it is to run a signature petition campaign in a state relative to other states or how hard and expensive it is to collect a given valid signature. It takes into consideration the population and signature requirements for a state. For example, the average total cost of a successful initiative petition drive in California in 2016 was just over $2.9 million, while in Oklahoma the average total cost was about $870,000. Initiatives in California, however, require over four times as many signatures and affect 10 times as many people.

Cost Per Required Signature (CPRS): The cost per required signature cuts out the variable of a state's signature requirements and shows the cost for each signature needed to qualify the measure for the ballot. This second measurement is a better indication of how difficult it is to run a signature petition campaign in a given state relative to other states. For example, the average CPRS in California in 2016 was $6.20 while the average CPRS in Oklahoma was $9.59, but the average total petition cost was $2.9 million in California and about $870,000 in Oklahoma.

From the perspective of a national organization or proponents of a national agenda, this means that a lower CPRS generally means that a campaign could potentially affect more people and achieve more political influence per dollar spent, while the total petition cost might dictate in which states the campaign could actually afford to launch a successful petition drive.

Recent news

The link below is to the most recent stories in a Google news search for the terms FieldWorks. These results are automatically generated from Google. Ballotpedia does not curate or endorse these articles.

FieldWorks - Google News

See also

• Ballot initiative
• Ballot measures cost per required signatures analysis
• Petition drive management companies
• Laws governing the initiative process

External links

• FieldWorks website
• FieldWorks Facebook page
• FieldWorks Twitter page