Ballot Measure Scorecard, 2019
The Ballot Measure Scorecard lists statewide ballot measures certified for elections in 2019, along with indirect initiated measures that were approved by legislatures.
The Scorecard filters certified initiatives based on type of ballot measure.
See also: Overview of 2019 ballot measures
Certified for ballot
Statewide ballot measures were listed here once they had officially qualified or been scheduled to appear on the ballot. All statewide measures are listed by election date, including citizen initiatives, veto referendums, legislatively referred constitutional amendments, legislatively referred state statutes, legislatively referred bond questions, commission referrals, and automatic referrals.
October 12
- Louisiana Amendment 4, New Orleans Affordable Housing Property Tax Exemption Amendment (October 2019)
- Louisiana Amendment 1, Property Tax Exemption for Stored Materials Routed for Outer Continental Shelf Amendment (October 2019)
November 5
- Pennsylvania Marsy's Law Crime Victims Rights Amendment (2019)
- Washington Initiative 976, Limits on Motor Vehicle Taxes and Fees Measure (2019)
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- Washington Senate Joint Resolution 8200, Government Continuation Legislation for Catastrophic Incidents Amendment (2019)
- Texas Proposition 8, Flood Infrastructure Fund Amendment (2019)
- Texas Proposition 2, Water Development Board Bonds Amendment (2019)
- Texas Proposition 6, Cancer Prevention and Research Institute Bonds Amendment (2019)
- Washington Referendum 88, Vote on I-1000 Affirmative Action Measure (2019)
- Texas Proposition 9, Precious Metals in Depositories Exempt from Property Tax Amendment (2019)
- Maine Question 2, Allow for Alternative Initiative Signatures for Persons with Disabilities Amendment (2019)
- Texas Proposition 4, Prohibit State Income Tax on Individuals Amendment (2019)
- New Jersey Public Question 1, Property Tax Deduction for Veterans Extended to Continuing Care Retirement Communities Amendment (2019)
- Maine Question 1, Transportation Infrastructure Bond Issue (2019)
- Washington Advisory Vote 20, Nonbinding Question on Tax to Fund Long-Term Healthcare Services (2019)
- Washington Advisory Vote 22, Nonbinding Question on Paint Tax to Fund Paint Waste Management Programs (2019)
- Washington Advisory Vote 23, Nonbinding Question on E-Cigarette and Vapor Product Tax (2019)
- Washington Advisory Vote 26, Nonbinding Question on Online Retail Sales Tax (2019)
- Washington Advisory Vote 27, Nonbinding Question on Petroleum Product Tax (2019)
- Washington Advisory Vote 28, Nonbinding Question on Limiting Sales Tax Exemptions for Nonresidents (2019)
- Washington Advisory Vote 29, Nonbinding Question Concerning an Excise Tax on Real Property (2019)
- Washington Advisory Vote 24, Nonbinding Question on Business Activities Tax to Fund Higher Education Programs (2019)
- Washington Advisory Vote 25, Nonbinding Question Concerning a Tax on Certain Financial Institutions (2019)
- Washington Advisory Vote 31, Nonbinding Question on an International Investment Management Services Tax Increase (2019)
- Texas Proposition 3, Temporary Property Tax Exemption for Disaster Areas Amendment (2019)
- Colorado Proposition DD, Legalize Sports Betting with Tax Revenue for Water Projects Measure (2019)
- Colorado Proposition CC, Retain Revenue for Transportation and Education TABOR Measure (2019)
- Texas Proposition 5, Sales Tax on Sporting Goods Dedicated to Parks, Wildlife, and Historical Agencies Amendment (2019)
Signatures submitted
Proposed ballot initiatives were listed here when the initiatives' sponsors had turned in their petition signatures to election authorities, but the petitions had not been certified for the ballot. In some states, signature submission can take place over a long period of time and signatures can be submitted in multiple batches or must be submitted as they are collected. Only initiatives for which the signature submission process is complete are listed below.
Citizen-initiated measures with signatures submitted:
Any signatures submitted for 2019 initiatives have been processed.
Initiatives certified to the legislature
- See also: Indirect initiative
This phase of the initiative process only applies to indirect initiatives.
Ballot initiatives in states that feature an indirect initiative process must go before the state legislature after signatures are submitted and enough of the submitted signatures are found to be valid. This presentation to the legislature is an intermediate step for successful signature petition drives between when an initiative petition is found to be sufficient and certification for the ballot. In some states with an indirect initiative process, the legislature can approve the proposed law themselves or put it before voters. In other states, the legislature has the chance to propose alternatives or amendments to the initiatives that can appear alongside the citizen initiative on the ballot.
Initiatives certified to the legislature:
Any 2019 inidirect initiatives that were certified to the legislature have either been approved by legislators or referred to the ballot.
Approved by the legislature
This phase of the initiative process only applies to indirect initiatives.
Ballot initiatives in states that feature an indirect initiative process must go before the state legislature after signatures are submitted and enough of the submitted signatures are found to be valid. This presentation to the legislature is an intermediate step for successful signature petition drives between when an initiative petition is found to be sufficient and certification for the ballot. In some states with an indirect initiative process, the legislature can approve the proposed law themselves or put it before voters. In other states, the legislature has the chance to propose alternatives or amendments to the initiatives that can appear alongside the citizen initiative on the ballot. In some states, there are certain rules, such as legislative alteration rules, that don't apply if the legislature approves the initiative rather than putting it before voters.
Successful 2019 initiative petitions that were previously certified to the legislature and that were approved by the legislature instead of being put on the ballot are listed below:
Initiatives approved by the legislature:
Amendments
All states but Delaware require voter approval of proposed changes to the state constitutions. In some years there are constitutional conventions or unique commissions in Florida that can refer amendments to the ballot, but neither of these were relevant in 2019. There are rare scenarios in which technical and non-substantive changes can be made to state constitutions without voter approval. All certified statewide measures in 2019 proposing to amend state constitutions that require statewide voter approval are listed here. This list includes any certified initiated constitutional amendments (in the first section) and legislatively referred constitutional amendments (in the second section).
The list does not include proposed constitutional amendments of local applicability that only required local voter approval. It also does not include amendments that did not require voter approval.
Initiated amendments
There were no certified initiated amendments in 2019.
Legislatively referred amendments
- Maine Question 2, Allow for Alternative Initiative Signatures for Persons with Disabilities Amendment (2019)
- Texas Proposition 4, Prohibit State Income Tax on Individuals Amendment (2019)
- Texas Proposition 9, Precious Metals in Depositories Exempt from Property Tax Amendment (2019)
- New Jersey Public Question 1, Property Tax Deduction for Veterans Extended to Continuing Care Retirement Communities Amendment (2019)
- Texas Proposition 8, Flood Infrastructure Fund Amendment (2019)
- Texas Proposition 2, Water Development Board Bonds Amendment (2019)
- Louisiana Amendment 4, New Orleans Affordable Housing Property Tax Exemption Amendment (October 2019)
- Washington Senate Joint Resolution 8200, Government Continuation Legislation for Catastrophic Incidents Amendment (2019)
- Louisiana Amendment 1, Property Tax Exemption for Stored Materials Routed for Outer Continental Shelf Amendment (October 2019)
- Texas Proposition 6, Cancer Prevention and Research Institute Bonds Amendment (2019)
- Pennsylvania Marsy's Law Crime Victims Rights Amendment (2019)
- Texas Proposition 3, Temporary Property Tax Exemption for Disaster Areas Amendment (2019)
- Texas Proposition 5, Sales Tax on Sporting Goods Dedicated to Parks, Wildlife, and Historical Agencies Amendment (2019)
Statutes
Most statutes that go before voters are put on the ballot by a citizen initiative petition. While state legislators can refer state statutes to the voters in certain states, they generally don't have to as they do with proposed constitutional amendments. In Arizona and California, voter approval is required for statutory changes of laws previously approved through a citizen initiative. The list below includes both initiated state statutes and legislatively referred state statutes that were put on ballots in 2019.
Initiated statutes
Referred statutes
- Colorado Proposition DD, Legalize Sports Betting with Tax Revenue for Water Projects Measure (2019)
- Colorado Proposition CC, Retain Revenue for Transportation and Education TABOR Measure (2019)
Veto referendums
A veto referendum is a type of citizen-initiated measure. But, instead of proposing a new law, a veto referendum is used by petitioners to seek the repeal of a law passed by the state legislature. The power of veto referendum is also referred to as people's veto.
Referred bond issues
In some states, the legislature is able to or required to put certain proposed bond issues before voters. This section lists legislatively referred bond questions. It does not list other types of measures that happened to propose the issuance of bonds or other indebtedness. For example, initiated constitutional amendments or initiated state statutes that were put on the ballot proposing the issuance of bonds are listed under the sections of this article about initiated constitutional amendments and initiated state statutes, respectively. To see a full list of all statewide measures proposing the issuance of bonds, regardless of what type of measure was used, click here.
Automatic referrals
Some measures are referred to the ballot automatically by a provision of a state constitution or state law. One common type of automatic referral is a constitutional convention question periodically asking voters in a state if they want a constitutional convention to be held to consider revisions to the state constitution.
There were no certified automatic referrals in 2019.
See also
- 2019 ballot measures
- Potential 2019 ballot measures
- Ballot measure annual scorecards
- Ballotpedia's Tuesday Count for 2019
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