Laws governing ballot measures in Wisconsin

Laws governing ballot measures in the U.S.

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Laws governing ballot measures in the U.S.

Changes to laws governing ballot measures

Types of ballot measures

Ballot measure policy topics

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This page provides an overview of resources addressing the laws and procedures that govern statewide and local ballot measures in Wisconsin, including constitutional amendments, recall procedures, and campaign finance regulations.

Explore the links below for more information:

• Types of ballot measures in Wisconsin
• Amending the Wisconsin Constitution
• Laws governing local ballot measures in Wisconsin
• Laws governing recall in Wisconsin
• Laws governing state constitutional conventions in Wisconsin
• Campaign finance requirements for Wisconsin ballot measures
• Changes to laws governing ballot measures in Wisconsin

Laws governing ballot measures in Wisconsin

Types of ballot measures in Wisconsin

• Citizens of Wisconsin do not have the power to initiate statewide ballot measures.

• In Wisconsin, the legislature can refer constitutional amendments, state statutes, and advisory questions to the ballot.

Amending the Wisconsin Constitution

• Wisconsin became a state in 1848. The first and current state constitution was ratified that same year.

• The Wisconsin Constitution can be amended in two ways:
  • Legislatively referred constitutional amendment: The state legislature can place constitutional amendments on the ballot with a majority vote from both houses of the legislature in two successive joint legislative sessions.
  • Convention-referred constitutional amendment: A state constitutional convention can vote to refer constitutional changes to the ballot.

Laws governing local ballot measures in Wisconsin

• Wisconsin cities and villages have a state-set initiative process in Wisconsin Statute § 9.20 that may be used to propose and vote on regular ordinances or charter ordinances.

Laws governing recall in Wisconsin

• The right of recall in Wisconsin extends to all elective offices in the state, but only after the elected official has served a full year in his or her current term of office.

• In terms of local elected positions, the right of recall extends to incumbent elected officials of any city, village, town, town sanitary district, or school district in the state.

• The number of valid signatures required for a recall election is 25% of the number of voters in the last election for governor within the electoral district of the officer sought to be recalled.

Laws governing state constitutional conventions in Wisconsin

• A simple majority vote is required during one legislative session for the Wisconsin State Legislature to place a constitutional convention question on the ballot. If a simple majority of voters approve the question, then the legislature needs to convene a convention during its next session.

Campaign finance requirements for Wisconsin ballot measures

• PACs that support or oppose ballot measures in Wisconsin must register and report campaign finance.

• Wisconsin has no campaign contribution limit for referendum groups.

Changes to laws governing ballot measures in Wisconsin

See also: Changes to laws governing ballot measures

2025

2024

2023

2022

2021

2020

2019

2018

See also: Changes in 2025 to laws governing ballot measures

As of September 2025, the Wisconsin State Legislature had not passed legislation that changed the laws governing ballot measures in 2025.

See also: Changes in 2024 to laws governing ballot measures

The Wisconsin State Legislature did not pass legislation concerning ballot measures in 2024.

See also: Changes in 2023 to laws governing ballot measures

• Assembly Bill 245: The legislation was an omnibus bill related to shared revenue for counties and municipalities and taxes. The legislation also included a provision prohibiting local governments from referring non-binding advisory questions to the ballot, except related to capital expenditures proposed to be funded with property taxes; local shared revenue agreements; cooperative boundary agreements; and certain cable and telecommunication operations.

AB 245 Vote	Senate			House
	Yes	No	NV	Yes	No	NV
Total	21	12	0	56	36	2
Democratic (D)	6	5	0	0	33	0
Republican (R)	15	7	0	56	3	2

• Assembly Speaker Robin Vos (R-63) said local non-binding questions should not be used for local issues, not other topics. "That's not the point. That's what elections are about. We should have had advisory referenda only for things that are directly related to what is being done that municipality," said Vos.
• Matthew Rothschild, executive director of the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign, said, "But now you don’t even want us to have the ability to offer our views on advisory referendums that have no binding power and only act as a vehicle of public speech. You want to impound that vehicle, and that’s outrageous. Advisory referendums provide the public with crucial ways to express themselves on vital issues of the day, and to communicate with you and other elected officials."

See also: Changes in 2022 to laws governing ballot measures

The Wisconsin State Legislature did not pass legislation concerning ballot measures in 2022.

See also: Changes in 2021 to laws governing ballot measures

The Wisconsin State Legislature did not pass legislation concerning ballot measures in 2021.

See also: Changes in 2020 to laws governing ballot measures

• Assembly Bill 310: The legislation allowed ballot questions to increase the limit on the local levy to be held on the same election dates as a school board referendum and required the ballot question to include the percentage increase from the previous year.

See also: Changes in 2019 to laws governing ballot measures

The Wisconsin State Legislature did not pass legislation concerning ballot measures in 2019.

See also: Changes in 2018 to laws governing ballot measures

The Wisconsin State Legislature did not pass legislation concerning ballot measures in 2018.

See also

State & Local Ballot Measures

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• • Laws governing ballot measures
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• • Historical Ballot Measures (HBM) Factbooks
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• • Campaign finance
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• • Polls

Footnotes

Laws governing ballot measures in the United States

Laws governing ballot measures

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Changes to laws governing ballot measures

Types of ballot measures

Citizen-initiated ballot measures • Legislatively referred ballot measures • Automatically referred ballot measures • Commission-referred ballot measures • Convention-referred constitutional amendments

Ballot measure policy terms

Glossary of ballot measure policy terms

State ballot measures

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