History of Initiative & Referendum in Nevada

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.

Between 1918 and the end of 2022, Nevada constituents voted on 64 initiatives. Of the total, 43 passed, and 21 failed.

How I&R got started in Nevada

In 1905, an amendment giving voters the power of referendum was approved by the Nevada Legislature and ratified by the voters by a margin of five to one.

By 1909, initiative supporters included acting governor Denver S. Dickerson (S-D) and U.S. Senator Francis G. Newlands (D), architect of the Newlands Reclamation Act of 1901, which set up the Federal Bureau of Reclamation and provided for the construction of dams and canals to irrigate the arid lands of the western states. An amendment establishing the initiative process passed the legislature and was approved by Nevada voters in 1912.

Notable initiatives in the past

The first initiative to pass was a Prohibition statute, approved by a 59 percent majority in 1918. In 1922, a change in the divorce law was initiated by petition, sparking the legislature to place its own alternative on the ballot also. The legislature's version passed, and the initiative lost. In 1936, Nevadans rejected a pension initiative by a margin of nearly three to one, but they changed their minds eight years later and approved another initiative by a 53.5 percent margin to increase the state's old-age benefits.

Right to work

During the 1950s business interests and labor unions clashed in three successive elections over the "Right to Work" issue. Organized labor lost in all three elections.

The battle began in 1952, when voters approved a "Right to Work" measure by a slim 50.7 percent margin. Labor unions fought back with a 1954 initiative to repeal the new law; Nevada voters defeated it by a narrow margin of 51.4 percent. A second union-sponsored repeal initiative on the 1956 ballot was rejected by a 53.9 percent margin. Another union-backed initiative on the same ballot sought to amend the state constitution to prohibit "Right to Work" laws, but was rejected by an even more decisive margin of 57 percent.

Signature Requirements initiative

In 1958, business interests responded with their own initiative to end the dispute in employers' favor, simply by making it more difficult to put initiatives on the ballot and more difficult to pass them. Approved by a 61.9 percent majority, the new provision required that initiative petitions meet signature quotas in three-quarters of the state's 17 counties. No more could initiative proponents get all the signatures they needed from the heavily populated Las Vegas and Reno areas. Another new requirement specified that initiatives to amend the constitution be approved by voters twice, in two successive elections, before taking effect. Nevada is the only state with such a requirement.

1982-2008

In 1982, an initiative spurred the legislature to pass a similar bill of its own creating a consumer advocates' office to deal with utility matters. Both measures were on the ballot, but sponsors of the initiative liked the legislature's version so much that they campaigned against their own. The legislature's measure won the approval of the voters.

In 1998 and 2000, voters approved medical marijuana legalization via the initiative process. In 2000 and 2002, voters approved an initiated constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage. As initiated constitutional amendments, these initiatives needed to be approved twice by voters according to Nevada's unique requirement.

In 2008, a property rights was on the ballot for it's second and final voter approval. It was approved, with over 60 percent of voters saying "yes."

External links

• Nevada statewide initiative usage from the I&R Institute

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