History of Initiative & Referendum in Idaho

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This article was significantly based on an article published by the Initiative & Referendum Institute and is used with their permission. Some portions of this article may have been adapted from Wikipedia, and information on the page may need to be updated.

The History of Initiative and Referendum in Idaho began in 1911. The Idaho legislature approved an initiative and referendum amendment to the state constitution, which was approved by voters the following year.

But the amendment did not specify the number of petition signatures required to qualify an initiative for the ballot. This meant that the legislature could set the threshold - and change it at any time. No initiative could qualify for the ballot until the legislature passed a bill to set the signature requirement. The legislature did this in 1915, but Governor Moses Alexander vetoed the bill because he thought the requirement unreasonable. Two decades went by before another such bill was passed.

Early initiatives

The first initiative to qualify for the ballot was one to establish the state Fish and Game Commission; the voters approved it in 1938 by a margin of three to one. In 1954, voters passed an anti-pollution measure to ban dredge mining in riverbeds.

In 1974, Idaho voters passed an initiative calling for greater disclosure of campaign contributions and expenditures. In 1978, they approved a property tax cut initiative patterned after California's Proposition 13. The initiative was amended by the state legislature.

In 1982, Idaho voters passed an initiative cutting taxes for homeowners, and in the same year they approved two other measures: one allowing denture technicians to compete with dentists in the sale and fitting of dentures and another supporting the development of nuclear power. At the time, this was the only statewide initiative supporting nuclear power that had ever been passed.

Notable initiative law changes

In 1984, a bill to increase the signature requirement for initiatives was introduced, voted on, and sent to the governor's desk. Governor John Evans vetoed the bill. In 1999, the legislature passed a law to increase the distribution requirement for initiatives. However, in litigation sponsored by the Initiative & Referendum Institute, the Federal District Court for Idaho struck down the regulation as unconstitutional.

See also

• Laws governing the initiative process in Idaho
• Procedures for qualifying an initiative in Idaho
• List of Idaho ballot measures