Wisconsin Question 2, Initiative and Referendum Amendment (1914)

Wisconsin Question 2
Election date November 3, 1914
Topic Initiative and referendum process
Status Defeated
Type Legislatively referred constitutional amendment	Origin State legislature

Wisconsin Question 2 was on the ballot as a legislatively referred constitutional amendment in Wisconsin on November 3, 1914. It was defeated.

A "yes" vote supported amending the constitution to establish an initiative and referendum process in Wisconsin to authorize citizens to place statutes on the ballot or bring a vote to repeal a law passed by the state legislature.

A "no" vote opposed amending the constitution to establish the initiative and referendum process in Wisconsin.

Election results

Wisconsin Question 2
Result		Votes	Percentage
Yes		84,934	36.38%
No		148,536	63.62%

Results are officially certified.

Source

Text of measure

Ballot title

The ballot title for Question 2 was as follows:

“

For amendment to section 1 of article IV, providing for the initiative and referendum and giving to the people the power by their votes to enact, adopt, or reject laws or proposed laws.

”

Support

Arguments

• Wisconsin State Journal: "Legislative moods, legislative bickering, and legislative compromises may cause the defeat of necessary and helpful legislation. If through accident or through the design of the lobbyists salutary legislation is thus killed, the citizenship of the state ought not to be at the mercy of these accidents or malicious designs. The initiative and referendum places in the hands of the citizens an effective means of correcting such abuses. It remains for the people to place their seal of approval upon it by the very process which it would extend."
• Madison State Journal: "May the day never come in this state when legislatures are so unresponsive to public demand! Should it ever come, the initiative in the hands of the people will be a two-edged sword. Place it there by voting 'yes' on the constitutional amendments providing for the initiative and referendum."

Opposition

Opponents

Organizations

• Home Rule and Taxpayers' League

Arguments

• T. Crabtree: "In the last number I showed, conclusively to fair-minded men I think, that no matter what may be our opinion of the men who are engineering the progressive propaganda, with the full initiative, referendum, recall in force in this state, including for the judicial recall, it will only need a simple national law similar to the principles outlined in the Bourne bill to make possible and easy, under certain political conditions, the confiscation of all private property to the state, and without any form of compensation. These political conditions need to be merely that a majority of the voters vote in favor of a simple enabling law which can be put through by the initiative; and with all of the ultra progressives, together with the solid Socialistic vote of nearly forty thousand voting for such a law, it will be exceedingly hard for the conservative property owners to defeat it. Do you want this not only possible but also very probable condition to face you at every election, gentlemen? If not, then vote no on all of the constitutional amendments."
• Wisconsin Republican Party: "We call the attention of the people to the proposed amendments to our State Constitution. They provide for the initiative, referendum, and recall. These propositions are destructive of representative government, have been absolutely discredited by experience elsewhere, and should be voted down."

Path to the ballot

See also: Amending the Wisconsin Constitution

A simple majority vote is required during two legislative sessions for the Wisconsin State Legislature to place a constitutional amendment on the ballot. That amounts to a minimum of 50 votes in the Wisconsin State Assembly and 17 votes in the Wisconsin State Senate, assuming no vacancies. Amendments do not require the governor's signature to be referred to the ballot.

See also

1914 Measures

• 1914 Measures
• Initiative and referendum process on the ballot
• 1914 legislative sessions

Wisconsin

• Wisconsin ballot measures
• Wisconsin ballot measure laws

News and analysis

• Ballot measure lawsuits
• Ballot measure readability
• Ballot measure polls