Mississippi Ballot Initiative Process Amendment (2023)

Mississippi Ballot Initiative Process Amendment
Election date November 7, 2023
Topic Direct democracy measures
Status Not on the ballot
Type Constitutional amendment	Origin State legislature

The Mississippi Ballot Initiative Process Amendment was not on the ballot in Mississippi as a legislatively referred constitutional amendment on November 7, 2023.

Overview

Mississippi's initiative process was invalidated following a court ruling invalidated Initiative 65, a medical marijuana amendment in 2020. Before the process was invalidated, citizens of Mississippi could indirectly initiate constitutional amendments. Mississippi residents could not directly initiate state statutes or repeal legislation via veto referendum. Once enough signatures were collected, the Mississippi State Legislature could choose to adopt the measure by a majority vote in each house. If the legislature rejected the measure, the proposed amendment would proceed to the ballot; the measure would also go to the ballot if the legislature approved the measure. Alternatively, the legislature could choose to approve an amended version of the measure. In this case, both measures appeared on the ballot together.

This amendment would have created a new initiative process for citizens in Mississippi to initiate legislation. Under the amendment, residents could have repealed legislation via veto referendums and initiate state laws (but could not have initiated constitutional amendments) by circulating petitions for up to nine months and gathering signatures equal to 12% of the total number of qualified electors in the state as of the last presidential election with at least 100 signatures collected in each county. Under the proposed bill, if enough signatures were submitted, the proposed law would have been submitted to the Mississippi State Legislature, which could have, by a two-thirds vote, adopted the proposal or adopted an amended version of the proposal. If the initiative was adopted, amended, rejected by the state legislature, or if the legislature took no action on the proposal within four months, the initiative (and any alternative proposed by the legislature) would have been placed on the next statewide general election ballot.

Text of measure

Full text

The full text is available here.

Background

Mississippi's initiative process was invalidated following a court ruling invalidated Initiative 65, a medical marijuana amendment in 2020. The 1992 constitutional amendment that granted the power of citizen initiative in Mississippi required signatures to be collected evenly from all five congressional districts that existed at the time. It mandated no more than one-fifth of the required signatures could be collected from any single congressional district. During 2001 redistricting after the 2000 census, however, the number of congressional districts in the state was reduced to four.

On October 26, 2020, the City of Madison, Mississippi, filed a lawsuit against Initiative 65 in the Mississippi Supreme Court asking the court to invalidate the measure and not count any votes cast on it at the November 3, 2020, election. The city of Madison and Mayor Mary Hawkins Butler alleged that the Secretary of State unlawfully certified the measure in violation of Section 273 of Article 15 of the Mississippi Constitution. Section 273 states "The signatures of the qualified electors from any congressional district shall not exceed one-fifth ( 1/5 ) of the total number of signatures required to qualify an initiative petition for placement upon the ballot." Plaintiffs alleged "Because Mississippi has four congressional districts, it is a mathematical certainty that the number of signatures submitted in support of Initiative Measure No. 65 from at least one of the four congressional districts exceeds 1/5 of the total number required. Twenty percent (20%) from each congressional district equals eighty percent (80%) total; to reach one hundred percent (100%), the number from at least one district must exceed twenty percent (20%). The Mississippi Legislature is aware of this mathematical impossibility ... Despite the Legislature's failure to propose an amendment to the voters, the Secretary of State nonetheless has followed an 'amended' Section 273(3) and has inserted 'the last five-district congressional district plan' into the text of the Constitution.'"

State attorneys filed arguments on December 28, 2020, arguing that legislators never updated state laws to reflect four congressional districts instead of five and that "As a result, four congressional districts exist in Mississippi under a federal injunction for congressional elections, but five congressional districts exist under state law and may be used for anything but congressional elections." In 2009, the Mississippi attorney general’s office issued a legal opinion stating that initiative sponsors need to collect signatures from the five congressional districts used in the 1990s.

On May 14, 2021, the Mississippi Supreme Court overturned Initiative 65, the 2020 medical marijuana initiative. The ruling stated that the initiative petition did not comply with the signature distribution requirements in the Mississippi Constitution and that it is impossible for any petition to meet the requirements and has been impossible since congressional reapportionment in 2001.

The six justices wrote, "... Whether with intent, by oversight, or for some other reason, the drafters of [the constitutional signature distribution requirement] wrote a ballot initiative process that cannot work in a world where Mississippi has fewer than five representatives in Congress. To work in today’s reality, it will need amending—something that lies beyond the power of the Supreme Court."

Path to the ballot

See also: Amending the Mississippi Constitution

In Mississippi, for a legislatively referred constitutional amendment to be certified for the ballot, two-thirds of each house of the Mississippi State Legislature must vote to put it there. The absolute number of those voting in favor must be equal to at least a majority of the members elected to each house.

This amendment was introduced as Senate Concurrent Resolution 522 on January 16, 2023. The measure was passed in the Senate on February 9, 2023, in a vote of 43-4, with five members absent or not voting. The measure was amended in the House and returned to the Senate for concurrence. The Senate did not concur with the House's amendments or invite a conference before the March 23 deadline to act on the bill.

Vote in the Mississippi State Senate February 9, 2023
Requirement: Two-thirds (66.67 percent) vote of those present in each chamber, provided the vote is a majority of all members
	Yes	No	Not voting
Total	43	3	5
Total percent	82.69%	7.69%	9.62%
Democrat	15	0	1
Republican	28	4	4

See also

2023 measures

• 2023 ballot measures
• Direct democracy measures on the ballot

Mississippi

• Mississippi ballot measures
• Mississippi ballot measure laws

News and analysis

• Ballot measure lawsuits
• Ballot measure readability
• Ballot measure polls

External links

• Senate Concurrent Resolution 533