State Ballot Measure Monthly: April 2020
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By Ballot Measures Project staff
This edition of the State Ballot Measure Monthly covers certifications and a selection of notable ballot measure news from March 16 through April 16. So far, 76 statewide measures in 31 states have been certified for 2020 ballots. Three measures were on the ballot on March 3 in Alabama, California, and Maine. One measure was on the ballot on April 7 in Wisconsin. Two measures are on the ballot on July 14 in Maine. The remaining 70 measures will appear on November ballots. Six statewide measures were certified for the November ballot since our March edition.
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Number of certifications in past years:
The graph below shows the number of certifications in each week of 2012, 2014, 2016, and 2018, as well as the average for each week. The graph also shows 2020 certifications.
- 2018: By the second week of April, 69 measures had been certified for the 2018 ballot.
- Ultimately, 167 measures were on the ballot in 2018.
- 2016: By the second week of April, 88 measures had been certified for the 2016 ballot.
- Ultimately, 162 measures were on the ballot in 2016.
- 2014: By the second week of April, 94 measures had been certified for the 2014 ballot.
- Ultimately, 158 measures were on the ballot in 2014.
- 2012: By the second week of April, 89 measures had been certified for the 2012 ballot.
- Ultimately, 188 measures were on the ballot in 2012.
2020 certifications
From March 16 to April 16, six statewide measures were certified for the November ballot. All six were legislative referrals. Two were bond issues certified for the June 9 election in Maine, which was later rescheduled for July 14.
March 18:
- Maryland Question 1, Legislative Authority over State Budget Amendment (2020) - This amendment would authorize the Maryland General Assembly to increase, decrease, or add items to the state budget as long as such measures do not exceed the total proposed budget submitted by the governor. Currently, the state legislature can cut from the budget but not add to it. The General Assembly passed the amendment along party lines. In the Senate, 30 Democrats were in favor, and two did not vote. Al 15 senate Republicans were against the amendment. In the House, 95 of 96 Democrats voted in favor. Thirty-eight house Republicans were against the amendment, and four did not vote. Maryland has a divided state government, with a Republican governor and Democrats controlling both chambers of the state legislature.
- Maine Transportation Infrastructure Bond Issue (July 2020) - This measure would authorize $105 million in general obligation bonds for transportation infrastructure projects.
- Maine Question 1, High-Speed Internet Infrastructure Bond Issue (July 2020) - This measure would authorize $15 million in general obligation bonds for the ConnectME Authority to provide funding for high-speed internet infrastructure in unserved and underserved areas.
April 2, 2020:
- New York Environment and Climate Change Projects Bond Measure (2020) - This measure would issue $3 billion in general obligation bonds for projects related to the environment, natural resources, water infrastructure, and climate change mitigation.
April 14, 2020:
- Kentucky Constitutional Amendment 1, Marsy's Law Crime Victims Rights Amendment (2020) - This amendment would add specific rights of crime victims, together known as Marsy's Law, to the state Constitution. The rights would include the following:
- to be treated with fairness and due consideration for the victim’s safety, dignity, and privacy;
- to be notified about proceedings; to be heard at proceedings involving release, plea, or sentencing of the accused;
- to proceedings free from unreasonable delays; to be present at trials;
- to consult with the state's attorneys; to reasonable protection from the accused and those acting on behalf of the accused;
- to be notified about release or escape of the accused; to have the victim's and victim's family's safety considered when setting bail or determining release; and
- to receive restitution from the individual who committed the criminal offense.
- Kentucky voters approved a Marsy's Law amendment in 2018 with 63 percent of the vote, but it was overturned in KACDL v. Grimes and Board of Elections. The Kentucky Supreme Court ruled that the ballot language did not provide enough information to voters, making the Marsy's Law constitutional amendment invalid.
April 15, 2020:
- Kentucky Constitutional Amendment 2, Terms of Judicial Offices Amendment (2020) - This amendment would make the following changes to judicial offices:
- increase office terms of circuit court clerks and commonwealth's attorneys from six years to eight years starting in 2030;
- increase office terms of county attorneys and district judges from four years to eight years starting in 2022; and
- change attorney licensing requirements for district attorneys from two years to eight years beginning in 2022.
April 7 results for Wisconsin Marsy's Law
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On April 7, Wisconsin voters approved a Marsy's Law crime victims rights amendment 75% to 25%, making Wisconsin the 13th state to pass a Marsy's Law measure. There was an executive order and a series of court rulings concerning the timing and conduct of the election in response to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. Ultimately, voting took place on April 7, but a U.S. district court ruling prevented state officials from reporting results until April 13.
Gov. DeSantis signs Florida initiative process restrictions into law
The Florida legislature approved a bill April 9 making a series of changes to the state’s ballot initiative process. Senate Bill 1794, which Governor Ron DeSantis (R) signed into law the same day, included the following provisions:
- increases the signature requirement threshold to trigger a review of the initiative petition by the Florida Supreme Court—changing it from 10% to 25% of the total requirement—and requires the threshold be met in half of congressional districts instead of one-fourth of them;
- requires the Florida Supreme Court to review whether a proposed amendment is "facially invalid under the United States Constitution" in addition to existing requirements for reviewing the ballot title and reviewing the initiative for compliance with the state's single-subject rule;
- requires petitioners to pay the actual cost of verifying signatures rather than the existing fee of $0.10 per signature or the actual cost, whichever is less;
- allows any citizen to challenge the registration of a paid circulator;
- makes signatures invalid after February 1 of even-numbered years each cycle instead of allowing signatures to remain valid for a period of two years;
- allows 60 days (instead of 30) for county elections supervisors to verify signatures except within 60 days from the February 1 deadline;
- requires elections supervisors to reject signatures collected by paid circulators not validly registered at the time the signatures were collected;
- requires specific statements on the measure's effect on the state budget (negative, positive, or indeterminate) to be included on the ballot;
- makes exceptions for initiative petition signatures gathered before the bill's effective date (April 8, 2020); and
- other provisions related to the cost of signature verification, requirements for supervisors to post certain information about signature validity and verification costs, and fiscal impact statements.
The bill was approved along party lines with Republicans in favor and Democrats opposed. The vote was 73-45 in the House and 23-17 in the Senate.
A coalition of organizations—including the League of Women Voters of Florida, ACLU of Florida, and the Florida AFL-CIO—sent a letter to Gov. DeSantis asking him to veto the bill. The groups said, ”Constitutional amendments that pass do so with almost always a higher threshold than elected leaders. Why should we want to limit a citizen's ability to enact change? SB 1794 does exactly that. In the midst of a global health crisis, any limitation to a citizen's right to direct democracy seems unjust.”
Speaking of SB 1794, Sen. Dennis Baxley (R) said that citizen initiatives produce “endless pieces of policy and budget” and harm the integrity of the state constitution. Baxley pointed out that legislators can deliberately choose to not take up certain laws for good reason. Baxley said, “I say not giving proper restraint to how people amend the state constitution is a neglect of our duty to protect that constitution and the election process by which people select people in a democratic republic to go and represent them.”
Four citizen initiatives qualified for the 2020 ballot before the Feb. 1 signature verification deadline. The legislature referred two amendments to the 2020 ballot.
In 2019, the Florida State Legislature passed House Bill 5, which banned pay-per-signature, added paid circulator registration requirements, and other provisions related to fiscal impact statements and deadlines.
See also
- 2020 ballot measures
- List of ballot measures by state
- List of ballot measures by year
- Ballot Measure Scorecard, 2020
- Ballotpedia's Tuesday Count for 2020
Related articles
Footnotes
- ↑ The numbers in the second column indicate how many ballot measures were certified for the ballot in the last month; for example a "+3" means that three measures were certified in the last month.
- ↑ This number includes citizen-initiated measures, legislative referrals, and an automatically referred measure.
- ↑ This was current as of April 1, 2020.
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