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State Ballot Measure Monthly: May 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 April 17 through May 15. Four new measures were certified for Nov. 3 ballots in California, Maryland, and Missouri.
So far, 80 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. One measure is on the ballot on June 30 in Oklahoma. Two measures are on the ballot on July 14 in Maine. The remaining 73 measures will appear on November ballots.
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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.
From March 17 through May 15, the number of new statewide measures certified for the ballot dropped to 28% below the average from 2010 through 2018. It fell to 15% below 2018, the year with the lowest number of certifications as of the second week in May. Click here to read about how the coronavirus pandemic has affected ballot measures. While four measures were certified for the ballot since our April edition, an average of 14 measures new measures were certified during the same time period from 2010 through 2018.
- 2018: By the second week of May, 94 measures had been certified for the 2018 ballot.
- Ultimately, 167 measures were on the ballot in 2018.
- 2016: By the second week of May, 97 measures had been certified for the 2016 ballot.
- Ultimately, 162 measures were on the ballot in 2016.
- 2014: By the second week of May, 104 measures had been certified for the 2014 ballot.
- Ultimately, 158 measures were on the ballot in 2014.
- 2012: By the second week of May, 106 measures had been certified for the 2012 ballot.
- Ultimately, 188 measures were on the ballot in 2012.
2020 certifications
From April 17 to May 15, four statewide measures were certified for the Nov. 3 ballot.
April 23:
- California Property Tax Transfers and Exemptions Initiative (2020) - This citizen initiative would amend the constitution to do the following:
- allow eligible homeowners to transfer their tax assessments anywhere within the state, increase the number of times a tax assessment can be transferred from one to three, and allow tax assessments to be transferred to a more expensive home with an upward adjustment;
- require that non-primary residential properties be reassessed at market value when transferred from parent to child or grandparent to grandchild; and
- require that a legal entity's property be reassessed at market value if 90% of a legal entity's ownership changes, even if no one person or entity acquires more than 50%.
- On April 23, the office of Secretary of State Alex Padilla certified the measure for the ballot. The campaign filed 1,492,219 signatures and needed 997,139 valid signatures to qualify for the ballot. In California, if a random sample projects that more than 110% of the required number of signatures are valid, the measure is certified for the ballot.
May 7:
- Maryland Question 2, Sports Betting Measure (2020) - This measure would authorize sports and events wagering at certain licensed facilities with state revenue intended to fund public education. The state legislature referred this measure to the ballot. The Maryland Constitution requires that the legislature submit laws expanding commercial wagering to a referendum at a general election.
- In May 2018, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Murphy v. NCAA that the federal government could not require states to prohibit sports betting. This overturned the federal ban on sports betting. As of March, 16 states had active sports betting industries. South Dakota voters will decide a legislatively referred constitutional amendment in November that would legalize sports betting within the city limits of Deadwood, South Dakota. Colorado and Arkansas voters approved sports betting ballot measures in 2019 and 2018, respectively.
May 13:
- Missouri Amendment 3, Redistricting Process and Criteria, Lobbying, and Campaign Finance Amendment (2020) - The Missouri State Legislature referred this amendment—Senate Joint Resolution 38—to the November ballot. It would change or repeal certain provisions of Missouri Amendment 1, which voters passed in 2018 with 62% of the vote, by making the following changes related to redistricting, lobbying, and campaign finance:
- eliminate the nonpartisan state demographer and return legislative redistricting authority to a bipartisan redistricting commission;
- alter the criteria used to draft district maps;
- change the threshold of lobbyist gifts from $5 to $0; and
- lower the contribution limit for state senate campaigns from $2,500 to $2,400.
- Amendment 1 (2018) created a position called the non-partisan state demographer, which was tasked with drawing state legislative districts. Amendment 1 required the state demographer and commissions to consider specific criteria, including what the initiative calls partisan fairness and competitiveness, contiguousness, compactness, and the boundaries of political subdivisions. SJR 38 would set new redistricting criteria, emphasizing population size, adherence to voting rights laws, compactness, and county unity ahead of partisan fairness and competitiveness.
May 15: Oklahoma State Question 814, Decrease Tobacco Settlement Endowment Trust Fund Deposits and Fund Medicaid Program Amendment (2020) - The Oklahoma State Legislature referred this amendment to the Nov. 3 ballot. The amendment would decrease appropriations made to the state's Tobacco Settlement Endowment Trust (TSET) Fund from 75% to 25% of settlement revenue. Funds that are not deposited into the TSET fund would be deposited into a special fund, under the amendment. The constitutional amendment would direct the legislature to appropriate money from the special fund to "draw down federal matching funds for the Medicaid program."
Oklahoma Governor Kevin Stitt (R) sets June 30 election date for Medicaid expansion initiative
Proponents of [[Oklahoma State Question 802, Medicaid Expansion Initiative (June 2020)|Oklahoma State Question 802, the Medicaid Expansion Initiative], submitted 313,000 signatures on Oct. 24, 2019.[4] The Oklahoma Secretary of State's office announced on Nov. 15, 2019, that more than the required 177,958 signatures were valid, certifying it to appear on the ballot in 2020.[5][6] On April 17, 2020, Gov. Stitt, who opposes State Question 802, ordered the measure to appear on the June 30 primary ballot rather than the default Nov. 3 general election ballot.[7]
State Question 802 would expand Medicaid in Oklahoma under the Affordable Care Act (ACA), also known as Obamacare. State Question 802 would provide Medicaid coverage for adults between 18 and 65 with incomes below 133% of the federal poverty level (FPL). Because the ACA includes a 5% income disregard, this measure would effectively expand Medicaid to those with incomes below 138% of the federal poverty level.
In 2018, Oklahoma Governor Mary Fallin placed State Question 788, the medical marijuana initiative, on the June primary ballot. Before 2018, a governor had not selected a date different from the general election for an initiative since 2005.
Ballotpedia is covering changes to ballot measure signature petition drives, campaign activities, elections, procedures, and policies made in response to the coronavirus pandemic, as well as lawsuits filed over ballot measure deadlines and requirements.
- Ballotpedia has tracked 21 statewide initiative petition drives that suspended signature gathering.
- Seven states and D.C. changed ballot measure procedures.
- At least 11 lawsuits were filed seeking court orders suspending or changing signature requirements and deadlines. Rulings or settlements have been issued for six.
- At least one initiative campaign is reporting it has enough signatures but is delaying signature submission so its measure appears on the ballot in 2022 instead of 2020.
Below are some of the most notable ballot measure-related responses to the coronavirus pandemic since April 17:
- May 13: The campaign Save Our Schools Arizona (SOS Arizona) suspended signature-gathering efforts for a ballot initiative to limit private education vouchers. SOS Arizona suspended efforts after both the state Supreme Court and a U.S. district court rejected petitions to allow campaigns to use electronic signatures.[8]
- May 7: The Montana Secretary of State issued a declaratory order enabling campaigns to circulate petitions online so that supporters may print, sign, and return it to a county elections office (including through the mail).[9]
- April 30: Jamie Court, president of Consumer Watchdog, announced that the campaign for the California Changes to Medical Malpractice Lawsuits Cap Initiative had collected 988,000 signatures but chose not to file them before the recommended deadline on April 21, 2020, due to the coronavirus pandemic. Instead, the campaign decided to file the signatures to place the ballot initiative on the ballot for Nov. 8, 2022.[10] Court said, "This has been a really tough decision, but it’s really foggy out there now, with all the concern about the coronavirus. No one really knows how that will affect the November elections. … The medical negligence cap hasn’t changed in 45 years. We didn’t want to blow our chance."[11]
- April 29: All four active 2020 Massachusetts citizen initiative campaigns and Secretary William Galvin (D) agreed to a resolution allowing the campaigns to gather the second round of 13,347 signatures electronically. The campaigns can distribute the petitions online where they can be electronically signed or printed and mailed or emailed back to the respective campaign. This made Massachusetts the only state to allow electronic signatures for 2020 initiative petitions.[12]
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 May 1, 2020.
- ↑ Forbes, "In Red State Oklahoma, Medicaid Expansion Nears 2020 Ballot," accessed October 24, 2019
- ↑ Oklahoma Secretary of State, "State Questions," accessed April 22, 2019
- ↑ Oklahoma Supreme Court, "Case No. O-118417," accessed December 5, 2019
- ↑ Oklahoman, "Medicaid expansion qualifies for ballot; Stitt to set election date," accessed January 10, 2020
- ↑ Facebook, "Save Our Schools Arizona," May 13, 2020
- ↑ Montana Free Press, "Declaratory Ruling," March 7, 2020
- ↑ Consumer Watchdog, "Survivors of Medical Negligence Push CA Ballot Initiative Vote from 2020 to 2022," April 30, 2020
- ↑ San Francisco Chronicle, "Coronavirus forces California initiative backers to hold off until 2022," April 30, 2020
- ↑ Lowell Sun, "Accord clears way for e-sigs on ballot questions," April 30, 2020
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