Political party advisory question


Types of ballot measures
Initiated
• Initiated constitutional amendment
• Initiated state statute
• Veto referendum
Legislative
• Legislative constitutional amendment
• Legislative state statute
• Legislative bond issue
• Advisory question
Other
• Automatic ballot referral
• Commission-referred measure
• Convention-referred amendment
Select a state from the menu below to learn more about that state's types of ballot measures.

A political party advisory question is a ballot measure placed on primary ballots by a political party. The advisory questions are not legally binding on the party but are used to gauge voter sentiment about party positions.

As of 2024, at least three states—Georgia, South Carolina, and Texas—have allowed political parties to include nonbinding political party advisory questions on statewide primary ballots. All three states have open primaries, which means voters do not have to formally affiliate with a political party in advance in order to vote in its primary.

States that feature political party advisory questions

List of states

The following table provides a list of states that have featured political party advisory questions on statewide ballots:

States that feature political party advisory questions
State	Primary type	Process	Statutory citation	Recent questions on the ballot
Georgia	Open primary	Georgia law allows "other state-wide questions or questions to be presented to the electors of more than one county." Political parties at the state and county levels can vote to refer nonbinding political advisory questions to ballots. State law requires that they be printed after any other legislatively referred constitutional amendments appearing on the ballot. Questions must be submitted to state elections officials by the ballot finalization deadline.	GA Code § 21-2-285 (2024)	May 2024
South Carolina	Open primary	South Carolina law governing the administration of elections states, "Nothing herein shall be construed to prevent any party from submitting to party members any question or issue." State law requires state and county political parties to submit questions by April 5 for the June primary.	S.C. Code Ann. §7-13-40 (2024) S.C. Code Ann. §7-13-400 (2024)	June 2014
Texas	Open primary	A party's state executive committee, by a simple majority vote, can decide to place questions on the general primary election ballot. State law also authorizes citizens to petition political parties to place advisory questions on a party’s primary ballot if they gather signatures equal to 5% of that party’s last gubernatorial primary turnout and submit signatures by the regular filing deadline for candidates. The party, by adopting a rule, may require the petition to contain signatures from voters based on "party alignment or preference." The state executive committee would write the ballot language for initiated advisory questions.	Texas Statutes Title 10. Sec. 172.087. (2024)	March 2022

Types of ballot measures

See also: Ballot measure

Most ballot measures are placed on the ballot through citizen initiatives or legislative processes. Others are placed on the ballot automatically, by a special commission, or by a state constitutional convention. The following is a list of different types of state ballot measures:

Types of state ballot measures

Citizen-initiated ballot measure

• Initiated constitutional amendment

• Direct initiated constitutional amendment

• Indirect initiated constitutional amendment

• Initiated state statute

• Direct initiated state statute

• Indirect initiated state statute

• Combined initiated constitutional amendment and state statute

• Veto referendum

• Statute affirmation (Nevada)

Legislatively referred ballot measure