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State Ballot Measure Monthly: January 2025
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By Ballot Measures Project staff
This edition of the State Ballot Measure Monthly provides certifications of state ballot measures and notable ballot measure news from December 12 through January 7.
Odd-year ballot measure elections
From 2011 to 2023, an average of 33 statewide ballot measures—five initiated measures and 28 referred measures—appeared on ballots in odd-numbered years. An initiated measure is a proposed law that people collect signatures for to put on the ballot. A referred measure is a proposed law that a legislature or commission, or constitutional provision in the case of automatic referrals, puts on the ballot for voters to decide. The following chart illustrates the numbers of initiated measures and referred measures for each odd-numbered year from 2001 to 2023. The year with the most initiated measures, at 19, was 2005. The year with the most referred measures, at 59, was 2003.
2025 certifications
- See also: Ballotpedia's Tuesday Count for 2025
December 18:
- Ohio Local Public Infrastructure Bond Amendment: The amendment, which will appear on statewide ballots on May 6, would allow the state to issue up to $2.5 billion in general obligation bonds, limited to $250 million per year, to assist local governments in funding public infrastructure improvement projects. The last such bond measure was approved in 2014 with 65% of the vote and issued $1.875 billion in bonds.
2026 certifications
- See also: Ballotpedia's Tuesday Count for 2026
January 3:
- Wyoming Homeowner’s Primary Residence Property Tax Exemption Initiative: The initiative would create a homeowner's property tax exemption to exempt 50% of a primary residence's assessed value. Eligible homeowners must have been state residents for at least one year and have resided in their primary residence for at least six months of the preceding tax year. The exemption would apply to houses, trailer houses, mobile homes, or other dwelling places. A homeowners exemption could be claimed on a property owned by a farming or ranching business entity if it serves as a primary residence for one of the business entity's partners or shareholders or their relatives.
Headlines
Campaigns for abortion rights measures raised eight times more than opposing campaigns in 2024
In 2024, voters in ten states—Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Maryland, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New York, and South Dakota—decided on 11 abortion-related ballot measures in Nov. 2024. This is the most on record for a single year.
Ten addressed state constitutional rights to abortion. Voters approved seven of them in Arizona, Colorado, Maryland, Missouri, Montana, New York, and Nevada, while three were defeated in Florida, Nebraska, and South Dakota.
One, in Nebraska, to limit the timeframe for when an abortion can be performed was approved.
Regarding the political action committees (PACs) registered to support or oppose the ballot measures, 12 PACs described themselves as pro-choice or pro-reproductive rights (hereafter, pro-choice campaigns), and 24 PACs described themselves as pro-life (hereafter, pro-life campaigns).
As per the latest campaign finance reports, the pro-choice campaigns reported $246.9 million in contributions, while pro-life campaigns reported $30.2 million in contributions. In total, the pro-choice campaigns received 8.16 times more in contributions than pro-life campaigns.
The chart below illustrates the totals raised by pro-choice and pro-life campaigns in 2024.
The most expensive abortion-related ballot measure was Florida Amendment 4. Through Oct. 31, 2024, the campaign supporting the amendment reported $118.6 million in contributions and $117.5 million in expenditures, while the campaigns opposing the amendment reported $12.0 million in contributions and $10.7 in expenditures. The measure was defeated, with 57% voting ‘yes’ and 43% voting 'no.' In Florida, constitutional amendments need a 60% supermajority to pass, so while the majority of voters approved the amendment, it still did not receive the threshold of votes required to pass.
Several organizations donated across multiple campaigns supporting pro-choice campaigns, including the Fairness Project, The Sixteen Thirty Fund, the American Civil Liberties Union, the Advocacy Action Fund, and Think Big America. The organization contributing the most funds across multiple states was the Fairness Project, contributing more than $22.3 million to abortion ballot measure campaigns in Arizona, Florida, Missouri, Montana, and Nebraska.
Seven out of eight of the abortion-related ballot measures that were approved by voters were supported by campaigns that reported more in contributions than the opposing campaigns. In Nebraska, two measures were on the ballot—Initiative 434, supported by pro-life PACs and Initiative 439, supported by pro-choice PACs. In Nebraska’s case, Initiative 434 was approved by voters, and Initiative 439 was rejected by voters, with the pro-life PACs reporting $11.9 million in contributions, while the pro-choice PACs reported $13.2 million in contributions.
For the other two measures that were rejected, the pro-choice PACs supporting Amendment 4 in Florida reported 9.8 times more contributions than the pro-life PACs. Meanwhile, South Dakota was the only state where pro-life PACs reported more in contributions than pro-choice PACs, with pro-choice PACs reporting $647,665 in contributions while pro-life PACs reported $1.1 million in contributions.
The table below shows the campaign totals for each abortion-related ballot measure.
Footnotes
See also
- 2025 ballot measures
- Ballot initiatives filed for the 2025 ballot
- Ballot Measure Scorecard, 2025
- Ballotpedia's Tuesday Count for 2025
Related articles
Footnotes
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