A majority of the nation won’t just elect representatives in November, but also decide on statewide ballot measures that could alter state constitutions. An elections scholar told Straight Arrow that the measures are the result of a politically active populace.
There are 164 ballot measures that touch on identification requirements to vote, rights to hunt and establishing a state gun set to appear on millions of ballots across 40 states this November.
The questions are written in plain English, requesting a yes or no answer.
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Ballot questions are hardly a new thing for elections, with school boards, local governments and first responders using them to get approvals for tax levies or annexation. This year, however, the focus is on citizen-driven questions — a process permitted in about half of the country.
Ryan Byrne, ballots team managing editor with Ballotpedia, said this year is close to a 50-50 split on conservative- and liberal-driven initiatives, but he’s seeing conservatives push more changes than before. According to Byrne, it more reflects how motivated conservative voters have become.
“There is an oversized number compared to the prior decade of conservative groups using the ballot initiative,” Byrne said.
Some of those changes involve restricting the right to vote to U.S. citizens, repealing a previously passed right to abortions and prohibiting transgender athletes from participating in sports that align with their gender identity.
An eastward expansion
A citizen-led ballot measure is a fairly new strategy expanding throughout the U.S. that originated in the Pacific Northwest. Byrne said that western states started adopting the practice during the Progressive Era, meanwhile ones in the South and East stuck to a more traditional form of government.
The Progressive Era is the time period between 1890 and 1930 where people sought improvements on labor, pushed for women’s suffrage and in turn, established the power citizens have in their elections and governments, according to the Woodrow Wilson House.
South Dakota became the first state to adopt the process in 1898, according to New America. It spread to Utah, Oregon and the majority of the midwest and western states through the Progressive Era. Citizen-led initiatives weren’t part of constitutions outside of the region until 1968, when Florida carved a section out of its doctrine for such processes.
“During the same period that western states were expanding voter power, southern states were actively disenfranchising Black citizens through Jim Crow laws like poll taxes and literacy tests,” according to New America. “Lawmakers in the South saw no advantage in empowering a broader electorate and feared that direct democracy could become a tool for racial or class-based insurgency.”
Momentum slowed, with Mississippi being the most recent state to permit citizen-driven ballot measures in 1992. According to New America, 26 states and the District of Columbia allow residents to start a ballot initiative, though Mississippi has since suspended the process due to signature distribution requirements.
Voters in Montana will decide whether or not to add the initiative and referendum process to the state’s Declaration of Rights.
An initiative appearing on the ballot doesn’t always mean voters want to vote on the question. Byrne said that the signature-collection process is costly, so hot-button issues are likely to be added due to advocacy groups donating funds or flooding a state with volunteers to get referendums added.
“It says more about where the various political sides are in the moment, and what they think is important rather than the general population,” he said. “It’s kind of fascinating in that way; the kind of delinking between the general population and organizations and political ideologies.”
Property taxes, voter ID top common initiatives
This year isn’t the highest with ballot initiatives. Ballotpedia has tracked legislature-approved and citizen-led referendums dating back to 1850 and found that 2018 had the highest, at 167 statewide measures across 38 states.
Measures that year targeted reapportionment, campaign finance and ethics, legalization of medical and recreational marijuana, restrictions on taxes and protections for crime victims.
The topics in 2026 nearly mimic what lawmakers have debated in chambers and publicly throughout the year. States such as Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, Kansas, South Dakota and West Virginia each have measures defining what citizenship requirements are needed to vote in state elections.
President Donald Trump pushed the Republican-controlled Senate to pass the Save America Act, which he has touted as an election integrity bill. Trump has urged Republicans to pass the legislation before midterms, adding that it would add several security layers to the elections system.
One in particular would be restricting mail-in ballots to only a certain population, which Trump used twice in 2026. His Monday Truth Social post didn’t include his previous demands of restricting vote by mail, which he wouldn’t qualify under.