Rhode Island Initiative and Referendum Amendment (2014)

Not on Ballot
This measure was not put on an election ballot

The Rhode Island Initiative and Referendum Amendment was not on the November 4, 2014 ballot in Rhode Island as a legislatively referred constitutional amendment. The measure, upon voter approval, would have created an initiative and referendum process in Rhode Island.

Voters would have been able to launch initiated constitutional amendments and initiated state statutes, and such initiatives would have been put forward for approval or disapproval at general elections.

There would have been a number of limitations on what ballot initiatives could address:

• Initiatives would not be permitted to abridge the civil rights or liberties included in Article I of the Rhode Island Constitution.
• Initiated constitutional amendments would not be permitted to appropriate or diminish state revenue.
• Initiated state statutes would not be permitted to appropriate revenue without also enacting a commensurate increase in revenues or decrease in other revenue appropriations. However, this would not apply to an initiative seeking to appropriate less than $500,000.

Support

Supporters

The following officials sponsored the measure in the legislature:

• Sen. Marc Cote (D-24)
• Sen. Roger Picard (D-20)
• Sen. David Bates (R-32)
• Sen. Christopher Ottiano (R-11)
• Sen. Nicholas Kettle (R-21)

Path to the ballot

See also: Amending the Rhode Island Constitution

In Rhode Island, a simple majority vote was required in both chambers of the legislature in order to place a proposed constitutional amendment on the ballot.

See also

Suggest a link

• 2014 ballot measures
• Rhode Island 2014 ballot measures
• History of direct democracy in Rhode Island