Ballot measures cost per required signatures analysis

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Cost Per Required Signature
Analyses

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2023 Signature costs
2022 Signature costs
2021 Signature costs
2020 Signature costs
2019 Signature costs
2018 Signature costs
2017 Signature costs
2016 Signature costs
2015 Signature costs
2014 Signature costs
2013 Signature costs
2012 Signature costs
2010 Signature costs

The cost per required signature (CPRS) is a comparison of the amount of money spent on the petition drive to the number of signatures the state requires for an initiative or veto referendum to make the ballot.

2010-2023

The chart below shows the lowest non-zero CPRS, the average CPRS, and the largest CPRS for years from 2010 through 2023:

Year Lowest (non-zero) Average Highest
2023 $0.79 $9.38 $16.28
2022 $0.08 $12.97[1] $25.44
2021 $6.97 $14.74 $32.49
2020 $1.30 $8.09 $24.20
2019 $2.15 $2.69 $3.22
2018 $0.07 $6.52 $25.86
2017 $0.02 $15.40 $43.97
2016 $0.41 $5.63 $56.00
2015 $4.26 $3.57[2] $8.13
2014 $0.76 $3.22 $10.86
2013 $1.24 $4.24 $9.82
2012 $0.24 $4.30 $10.86
2011 N/A[3] N/A[3] N/A[3]
2010 $0.08 $2.62 $9.51

Even-numbered election years, 2018-2022

Highlights

Below are some of the most notable facts from past CPRS reports. Click a link in the table above to view the full report for each year.

2023

In 2023, seven citizen-initiated measures[1] were on the ballot. Campaigns for these seven citizen-initiated measures on the ballot in 2023 spent a combined $12.95 million ($12,953,417.17) on signature gathering. The average CPRS in 2022 was $9.38.

  • $12.95 million was spent on signature drives for certified ballot initiatives in 2023.
  • $1.85 million was the average petition drive cost in 2023.
  • $9.38 was the average CPRS for 2023.
  • Ohio Issue 1, an initiative to establish a constitutional right to abortion, was the measure with the most expensive signature drive at $6.65 million.
  • Ohio Issue 2, a marijuana legalization initiative, was the measure with the highest CPRS at $16.28.

2022

  • For elections in 2022, 140 statewide ballot measures were certified for the ballot in 38 states. Of this total, 30 measures were citizen initiatives. Campaigns for these citizen-initiated measures spent a combined $118.29 million on signature gathering. The average CPRS in 2022 was $12.70, an increase from $8.09 in 2020, $6.19 in 2018, and $6.93 in 2016.
  • $118.29 million was spent on signature drives for certified ballot initiatives in 2022.
  • $4.08 million was the average petition drive cost in 2022. In 2020, the average cost was $2.06 million.
  • $12.70 was the average CPRS for 2022. In 2020, the average CPRS was $8.09.

2021

  • In 2021, four citizen-initiated measures were certified for the ballot. Three of the measures were on the ballot in Colorado and one was on the ballot in Maine.
  • Sponsors of Maine Question 1 spent a total of $2,048,794.68 to collect the 63,067 valid signatures required to put the measure on the ballot, resulting in a cost per required signature (CPRS) of $32.49.[4]
  • In total, $3,329,466.92 was spent by the initiative campaigns on signature gathering for the three 2021 Colorado initiatives. Campaigns needed to submit 124,632 valid signatures to qualify for the ballot. The average cost-per-required-signature was $8.42.

2020

  • A total of 43 citizen-initiated measures were certified for 2020 ballots, including three pre-November measures and 40 on the November 3 ballot.
  • $87.23 million was spent to collect the 11,178,353 valid signatures required to qualify the 2020 citizen-initiated statewide measures for the ballot.[5]
  • The average total petition cost for 2020 measures of $2.1 million was nearly double the average in 2018 ($1.2 million) and more than twice the average from 2010 through 2018 ($871,468).
  • The average CPRS for 2020 measures of $8.09 was 24% higher than the average in 2018 ($6.52) and nearly double the average from 2010 through 2018 ($4.7).
  • The total cost of successful paid signature petition drives ranged from $108,358 for a pre-November veto referendum in Maine to $8.8 million for Florida Amendment 4.
  • The CPRS for successful paid signature petition drives ranged from $1.30 for Missouri Amendment 2, a pre-November Medicaid expansion initiative, to $24.20 for Montana CI-118, a marijuana initiative.
  • The states with the highest average total cost for initiative petitions in 2020 were Florida ($6.75 million), California ($4.36 million), and Arizona ($2.7 million).
  • The states with the lowest total cost for initiative petition signature gathering were Washington (volunteer effort); Maine ($108,358); and Alaska ($199,792).
  • The states with the highest average CPRS for initiatives that were on the ballot were Montana ($24.02), South Dakota ($16.22), and Nevada ($12.46).

2019

2018

  • A total of between $74.4 million and $78.8 million was spent on the signature petitions for the 68 citizen-initiated measures that were on the ballot in 2018.[6]
  • The average total cost for qualifying an initiative or veto referendum for the ballot in 2018 was between $1.1 million and $1.2 million.[7]
  • The average CPRS across all the initiatives that were on the ballot in 2018 was between $6.19 and $6.85.
  • The states with the highest average total cost for initiative petitions were Florida, Ohio, and California.
  • The states with the lowest average total cost for initiative petitions were Oklahoma, Maine, and South Dakota.
  • The states with the highest average CPRS for initiatives that were on the ballot were Arkansas, Ohio, and Idaho.
  • The states with the lowest average CPRS for initiatives that were on the ballot were Michigan, Maine, and Oklahoma.
  • The most expensive individual initiative petition drives in 2018 were Arizona Proposition 127 ($5,843,652), Florida Amendment 3 ($5,282,534), and California Proposition 5 ($5,140,990).
  • The three individual initiative petition drives with the highest cost per required signature in 2018 were Arizona Proposition 127 ($25.86), Idaho Proposition 1 ($22.27), and Arkansas Issue 4 ($16.69).

2017

2016

  • In 2016, 71 citizen initiatives and five veto referendums were certified for the ballot across 17 different states.
  • Out of those 76 measures, seven petition drives were completed entirely through volunteers; the rest were completed through hiring a petition management company to run the petition drive effort or a combination of paid circulators and volunteer circulators.
  • A total of $78.12 million was spent on the successful initiative and veto referendum petitions in 2016.
  • The highest CPRS for initiatives and veto referendums in 2016 was $56, which is the highest CPRS Ballotpedia has recorded since beginning CPRS analysis in 2010 and is likely the highest CPRS in the history of direct democracy in the U.S. to date.
  • The average cost of a successful initiative or veto referendum petition drive was $1,027,890.77 across the 17 states featuring such measures in 2016.
  • The average CPRS across the 17 states with initiatives or referendums was $5.63 in 2016.

2015

  • In 2015, five initiatives were certified for the ballot in four states. The signature petition campaigns for two of the initiatives were conducted by volunteers with a cost of $0 per signature. Ohio's defeated Issue 3 had the highest CPRS at $8.13 per signature, which was almost $3 per signature less than the highest CPRS in 2013.
  • The average CPRS in 2015, counting all five initiatives, was $3.57.

2014

  • In 2014, the state with the highest CPRS was Missouri, with an average cost of $6.44 per required signature, and the state with the lowest CPRS was Massachusetts, with an average cost of $1.05 per required signature.

2013

  • In 2013, Colorado's Amendment 66 had a CPRS of between $8.18 and $11.47. This amount is significantly higher than Colorado's average CPRS in 2012 of $1.83. FieldWorks served as the signature collection company for this ballot effort.

2012

What does it cost to get on the ballot?

When citizens want to change the law through the initiative and referendum process, they must start by collecting petition signatures. By garnering enough signatures, the measure may be placed on the ballot for a vote of the people. The number of signatures required in order to land a statewide measure on the ballot ranges from tens to hundreds of thousands, depending on the state. Petition circulation timelines also vary by state, for those that have them, but can range from 60 days to four years. States also have petition drive deadlines to qualify for elections the same year, sometimes leaving supporters of a particular measure little time to collect a large number of signatures.

As a result, many ballot measure campaigns employ petition drive companies to assist in collecting as many valid signatures as possible. It is standard practice for petition sponsors to attempt to collect somewhat more than the required number of signatures in order to have a cushion, lest invalid signatures throw off their count. The amount of cushion a campaign opts to pay for varies widely; therefore, the number of signatures submitted will often vary widely from one initiative to the next even in the same state and the same election cycle, when the initiatives all have the same signature requirements.

Laws regarding signature collection vary from state to state. In some states, campaigns are allowed to pay circulators, while in others, this practice is illegal. Some states require signature collectors to be residents of the state in which the measure may appear on the ballot. Regardless of state-specific laws, collecting signatures to put a measure before voters is an arduous process, and campaigns sometimes spend hundred of thousands of dollars in order to hire companies to assist with their efforts.

It is difficult to know exactly how many valid signatures are gathered per circulation effort because the information is not always readily available via the secretary of state's office or news reports. This is especially true in states such as California, where signatures are submitted to each of the state's counties rather than to one central election office.

If it were possible to know exactly how many signatures each initiative sponsor submitted in each state and exactly how many of those signatures are valid, it would be possible to calculate a "cost-per-actual-signature" figure for every initiative in every state, which would allow an apples-to-apples comparison. However, many states do not review every signature for validity, but only determine the validity rate via careful examination of a sample of the signatures, or only examine signatures until enough have been verified for the measure to meet the threshold. Therefore, this report relies on the "cost-per-required-signature" figure to generate a standardized comparison, because that is available in every state.

General Disclaimer: All calculations are only as accurate as the data made available through the data sources.

Methodology

Ballotpedia's CPRS analyses use the following general methodology:

  • All data are compiled from information made available through each state's respective campaign finance website.
  • Individual initiative data are obtained from available reports from the main committee believed to have been in charge of the petition effort.
  • All costs that could be directly related to petitions, including petition gathering and petition printing, were accumulated. When a petition company is used, the company is listed even though all costs may not be directly associated.
  • All averages are calculated using only available data. If an initiative does not have data available, it is excluded from such calculations.
  • All averages are averages of totals, not averages of averages.

Petition drive management companies

Below is a list of some of the petition drive management companies that have assisted campaigns in collecting signatures for ballot measures:

Related articles

See also

Footnotes

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Ballotpedia was unable to calculate signature gathering costs for South Dakota Amendment D due to how expenditures are reported on the state's campaign finance website. Ballotpedia contacted the sponsoring campaign, South Dakotans Decide Healthcare. As this data is unavailable, South Dakota Amendment D is excluded from this report's analyses.
  2. ↑ If the average is lower than the lowest non-zero figure listed for a given year, it means that there were successful volunteer petitions drives with $0 CPRS.
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 Ballotpedia did not compile CPRS data for this year.
  4. ↑ Note: This total for Maine Question 1 based on reported expenditures that include both signature-gathering costs and canvassing. There is no way based on publicly available data to differentiate between services included in these expenditure reports.
  5. ↑ Information was unavailable for one of the petition drives. It is excluded from this data.
  6. ↑ A range was required because of unknown variables concerning petition costs in Colorado. Exact range: $74,380,285.97 and $78,811,835.97
  7. ↑ A range was required because of unknown variables concerning petition costs in Colorado. Exact range: Between $1,110,153.52 and $1,158,997.59
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