Lawmakers seek to rein in citizen ballot initiatives with new
requirements for petitions
[May 07, 2025]
By DAVID A. LIEB
Citizen activists supporting a public vote on important issues could
have to brush up on their reading, writing and arithmetic if they want
to get their initiatives on next year's ballot in some states.
A new Arkansas law will bar initiative ballot titles written above an
eighth-grade reading level. And canvassers will have to verify that
petition signers have either read the ballot title or had it read aloud
to them.
In South Dakota, sponsors will need to make sure their petition titles
appears in 14-point type on the front page and 16-point font on the
back, where people typically sign.
And in Florida, volunteers will have to register with the state if they
gather more than 25 petition signatures from outside their family or
risk facing felony charges punishable by up to five years in prison.
Across about dozen states, roughly 40 bills restricting or revamping the
citizen initiative process have passed at least one legislative chamber
this year, according to a review by The Associated Press. Many already
have been signed into law.
Some advocates for the initiative process are alarmed by the trend.
“Globally, as there’s movements to expand direct democracy. In the
United States it’s contracting,” said Dane Waters, chair of the
Initiative and Referendum Institute at the University of Southern
California, who has advised ballot campaigns in over 20 nations.
Most of the new restrictions come from Republican lawmakers in states
where petitions have been used to place abortion rights, marijuana
legalization and other progressive initiatives on the ballot. GOP
lawmakers contend their measures are shielding state constitutions from
outside interests.
“This is not a bill to restrict. It is a bill to protect — to make sure
that our constitutional system is one of integrity, and that it’s free
of fraud,” said state Sen. Jennifer Bradley of Florida, where the new
initiative requirements already have been challenged in court.
A right in some states, but not others
About half the U.S. states allow people to bypass their legislatures by
gathering signatures to place proposed laws or constitutional amendments
on the ballot.
Since Oregon voters first used the process in 1904, a total of 2,744
citizen initiatives have appeared on statewide ballots, with 42% wining
approval, according to the Initiative and Referendum Institute.
But the process has long caused tension between voters and their elected
representatives.
Lawmakers often perceive the initiative process as “an assault on their
power and authority, and they want to limit it,” Waters said. “They view
it, in my opinion, as a nuisance – a gnat that keeps bothering them.”
Restrictions on petition canvassers
Because initiative petitions require thousands of signatures to qualify
for the ballot, groups sponsoring them often pay people to solicit
signatures outside shopping centers and public places. Some states now
prohibit payments based on the number of signatures gathered.
States also are trying to restrict who can circulate petitions. A new
Arkansas law requires paid petition canvassers to live in the state. And
a new Montana law will make petition circulators wear badges displaying
their name and home state.
The new Florida law expanding registration requirements for petition
circulators also requires them to undergo state training and bars
canvassers who are noncitizens, nonresidents or felons without their
voting rights restored.
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The old Florida Capitol is seen with the tower of the current
Capitol rising behind, during a legislative session in Tallahassee,
Fla., March 6, 2025. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell, File)
More requirements for petition signers
In addition to providing their name, address and birth date, people
signing initiative petitions in Florida also will have to provide
either their Florida driver's license, state identification card or
the last four digits of their Social Security number.
That information is not required in other states, said Kelly Hall,
executive director of the Fairness Project, a progressive group that
has backed dozens of ballot initiatives in states. Hall said people
concerned about privacy might hesitate to sign petitions.
“I work in ballot measures, and I deeply support many of the things
that folks have tried to put on the ballot in Florida, ” Hall said,
“and I don’t know if I could bring myself to do that – that’s a very
prohibitive requirement.”
Making the fine print larger
Many states already prescribe a particular format for initiative
petitions. South Dakota's new mandate for specific font sizes was
prompted by allegations that some people got duped into signing a
petition for abortion rights last year, said sponsoring state Sen.
Amber Hulse, a Republican.
Printing the ballot title in large type “might make it harder for
some issues to get on the ballot if people know what they’re
signing. But that’s actually a good thing," Hulse said.
More power for elected officials
Before they can collect signatures, petition sponsors must get
approval from state officials. New measures in several states give
those officials greater authority.
New Arkansas laws allow the attorney general to reject initiatives
written above an eighth-grade reading level or which conflict with
the U.S. Constitution or federal law. Utah's lieutenant governor,
who already can reject unconstitutional petitions, now also will be
able to turn away petitions that are unlikely to provide adequate
funding for their proposed laws.
A new Missouri law gives greater power to the secretary of state,
instead of judges, to rewrite ballot summaries struck down as being
insufficient or unfair.
A higher threshold for voter approval
Most states require only a majority vote to amend their
constitutions, though Colorado requires 55% approval and Florida
60%.
Republican-led legislatures in North Dakota and South Dakota
approved measures this year proposing a 60% public vote to approve
future constitutional amendments, and Utah lawmakers backed a 60%
threshold for tax measures. All three propositions still must go
before voters, where they will need only a majority to pass.
Voters rejected similar proposals in Ohio, Arkansas and South Dakota
in recent years, but they approved a 60% threshold for tax measures
in Arizona.
Lawmakers contend the move has merit.
“Raising the threshold can help protect the constitution from being
manipulated by special interest groups or out-of-state activists,"
North Dakota House Majority Leader Mike Lefor said earlier this
year.
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Associated Press writers Jack Dura and Kate Payne contributed to
this report.
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