The Tuesday Count: 2013 Pre-election coverage

October 1, 2013

Edited by Brittany Clingen

The statewide ballots are officially set in six states - Colorado, Maine, New Jersey, New York, Texas and Washington - for the general election on November 5, 2013. Going forward throughout the weeks preceding the election, Ballotpedia's Tuesday Count will be providing various reports and analyses of the measures that will appear on the ballot. For ongoing pre-election coverage, please see this page.

Measures throughout the years

See also: 2013 ballot measures

The chart below on the left highlights the number of measures that appeared on the ballot from 2000 through 2013. This includes all citizen initiatives (initiated state statutes, initiated constitutional amendments and veto referendums), legislative referrals (legislatively referred constitutional amendments and legislatively referred state statutes), and advisory measures.

2013 turned out to be a year with an unusually low number of measures on the ballot. Historically, elections in odd-numbered years see approximately 45 measures on average, as evidenced by the chart below on the right; there were 34 in 2011. Going back to 1989, the average number of measures on the ballot in an odd-numbered year is slightly over 43, with about 9 states featuring ballot measures. With only 31 statewide measures on the ballot in 6 states, 2013 will have 28 percent fewer measures than the average number.

2013 is also a historically low year for the number of measures that were petitioned onto the ballot. In 2013, there were only three such measures on statewide ballots: Colorado Amendment 66, Washington I-517 and Washington I-522. This compares to an average of 7.1 such measures from 1993 through 2011.

Year	Initiatives	Legislative referrals	Other measures	TOTAL
2013	3	24	5	31
2012	63	122	3	188
2011	12	22	0	34
2010	50	130	4	184
2009	8	24	0	32
2008	74	92	8	174
2007	4	39	1	44
2006	83	140	3	226
2005	19	26	0	45
2004	65	107	1	173
2003	7	60	1	68
2002	55	162	6	223
2001	4	35	0	39
2000	82	151	2	235

Year	Number of states with measures	Number of measures on ballot
2015	9	28
2013	6	31
2011	9	34
2009	7	32
2007	9	43
2005	12	45
2003	14	67
2001	9	39
1999	16	71
1997	7	41
1995	7	33
1993	10	44
1991	5	34
1989	8	36

Signature collection costs

See also: 2012 ballot measure petition signature costs

Signatures had to be collected to qualify each of the three initiatives on the 2013 ballot. Below is a summary of the Cost per Required Signature (CPRS), which is based on how much money was spent by the support campaigns to gather enough signatures to land each measure on the ballot. The "Cost Per Required Signature" metric was used to determine the ultimate costs.

According to Ballotpedia's 2012 CPRS Report, nationally, the most expensive signature collection effort in 2012 was in California, where $10.86 was spent to qualify California Proposition 30 for the ballot. Like Colorado's Amendment 66, California's Proposition 30 was also a tax increase to boost educational funding. The average CPRS in 2012, nationally, was $4.06.

Colorado Amendment 66

• Signatures to qualify Amendment 66 for the ballot were collected by FieldWorks, a paid petition drive management company. FieldWorks received $779,046 for its work collecting signatures.

• The CPRS for Amendment 66 - given that an estimated sum of between $704,046.89 and $987,845.09 was spent on signatures versus a minimum requirement of 86,105 signatures - comes to between $8.18 and $11.47 per required signature.

• In 2012, the average CPRS in Colorado was $1.83.

Washington I-517

• Signatures to qualify Initiative 517 for the ballot were collected by various groups, including Peoples Petitioning LLC, Citizens in Charge and American Voter Drives.

• The CPRS for I-517 - given that $305,454 was spent on signatures versus a minimum requirement of 246,372 signatures - comes to $1.24 per required signature.

• In 2012, the average CPRS in Washington was $4.80.

Washington I-522

• Signatures to qualify Initiative 522 for the ballot were collected by Peoples Petitions LLC, among other groups.

• The CPRS for I-522 - given that $407,747 was spent on signatures versus a minimum requirement of 246,372 signatures - comes to $1.66 per required signature.

• In 2012, the average CPRS in Washington was $4.80.

Spotlight

Phoenix activists announce the launch of a new initiative to overhaul the city pension system again:

Phoenix, AZ

As the city of Phoenix sees its unfunded pension liabilities grow to $2.4 billion and its annual payments into the public pension system balloon from $28 million in 2000 to $110 million in fiscal year 2012, followed by $283 million a year later, some citizens are worried that the pension reform that was approved in 2012 will not be enough to get a handle on the city's retirement fund debt. Propositions 201 and 202, which established higher employee contributions and a higher age of retirement, were referred to the March 2013 ballot by the city council and overwhelmingly approved by voters. However, a group called Citizens for Pension Reform recently announced that they are beginning circulation of signature petitions to put an initiative before voters that would entirely change the pension system for public employees going forward. The initiative would focus on two things:

• First, it would change the city's retirement system from a defined benefit system, in which retirees are guaranteed payments despite investment performance, to a 401(k)-style defined contribution plan, in which the city contributes a set amount and the retiree's benefits depend on his or her own contributions and investment performance.

• Second, it would take steps to put a stop to pension spiking by implementing limits on the pension benefits available to current employees.

Citizens for Pension Reform must collect 25,480 valid, voter signatures to get their initiative on the 2014 ballot, and any one signature cannot be over 6 months old when the petitions are turned in.

See also

2013 ballot measures

Tuesday Count • 2013 Scorecard

• Ballotpedia's Tuesday Count for 2013
• 2013 ballot measures & 2014
• Local ballot measure elections in 2013
• Potential 2013 ballot measures & 2014

Footnotes

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