Forms of direct democracy in the American states

Types of ballot measures
Initiated
• Initiated constitutional amendment
• Initiated state statute
• Veto referendum
Legislative
• Legislative constitutional amendment
• Legislative state statute
• Legislative bond issue
• Advisory question
Other
• Automatic ballot referral
• Commission-referred measure
• Convention-referred amendment
Select a state from the menu below to learn more about that state's types of ballot measures.
AlabamaAlaskaArizonaArkansasCaliforniaColoradoConnecticutDelawareFloridaGeorgiaHawaiiIdahoIllinoisIndianaIowaKansasKentuckyLouisianaMaineMarylandMassachusettsMichiganMinnesotaMississippiMissouriMontanaNebraskaNevadaNew HampshireNew JerseyNew MexicoNew YorkNorth CarolinaNorth DakotaOhioOklahomaOregonPennsylvaniaRhode IslandSouth CarolinaSouth DakotaTennesseeTexasUtahVermontVirginiaWashingtonWest VirginiaWisconsinWyomingSubmit

The generally acknowledged forms of direct democracy at the statewide level are the legislatively referred constitutional amendment, the legislatively referred state statute, the initiated state statute (direct or indirect), the initiated constitutional amendment, the veto referendum (sometimes called the citizen referendum or the statute referendum), the statute affirmation (available only in Nevada), and statewide recall.

• Eight states enable the six most common forms of direct democracy. Those states are Arizona, California, Colorado, Michigan, Montana, Nevada (which also has the statute affirmation), North Dakota and Oregon.
• The chart below does not include the statute affirmation as a category since it is only available in one state. The chart also doesn't include the form of direct democracy under which citizen petitions can be used to impanel grand juries, an option that exists in six states.
• The chart below also does not include local direct democracy, such as initiated ordinances, initiated charter amendments, or town meetings.
• Delaware is the only state in which voter approval is not required for constitutional amendments passed by the legislature.
• Note that research on which states allow legislatively referred state statutes and under what terms has not been verified by multiple sources and in the view of Ballotpedia staff as of March 2011, needs additional exploration.
• Florida has a Constitution Revision Commission (CRC), which may refer constitutional amendments to the ballot, that meets every 20 years on the following schedule: 1977, 1997, 2017, 2037, 2057, and so on. It last met in 2017 and referred constitutional amendments to the 2018 ballot. Florida also has a Taxation and Budget Reform Commission that can refer constitutional amendments to the ballot.

State	Legislatively referred statute	Legislatively referred amendment	Initiated statute (direct or indirect)	Initiated amendment	Veto referendum	Recall
Alabama	d	a	d	d	d	d
Alaska	d	a	a	d	a	a
Arizona	a	a	a	a	a	a
Arkansas	a	a	a	a	a	d
California	a	a	a	a	a	a
Colorado	a	a	a	a	a	a
Connecticut	d	a	d	d	d	d
Delaware	a	d	d	d	d	d
Florida	d	a	d	a	d	d
Georgia	d	a	d	d	d	a
Hawaii	d	a	d	d	d	d
Idaho	a	a	a	d	a	a
Illinois	a	a	d	a (Limited)	d	d
Indiana	d	a	d	d	d	d
Iowa	d	a	d	d	d	d
Kansas	d	a	d	d	d	a
Kentucky	a	a	d	d	d	d
Louisiana	d	a	d	d	d	a
Maine	a	a	a	d	a	d
Maryland	a	a	d	d	a	d
Massachusetts	a	a	a	a	a	d
Michigan	a	a	a	a	a	a
Minnesota	d	a	d	d	d	a
Mississippi	d	a	d	a	d	d
Missouri	a	a	a	a	a	d
Montana	a	a	a	a	a	a
Nebraska	a	a	a	a	a	d
Nevada	a	a	a	a	a	a
New Hampshire	d	a	d	d	d	d
New Jersey	d	a	d	d	d	a
New Mexico	a	a	d	d	a	d
New York	d	a	d	d	d	d
North Carolina	d	a	d	d	d	d
North Dakota	a	a	a	a	a	a
Ohio	a	a	a	a	a	d
Oklahoma	a	a	a	a	a	d
Oregon	a	a	a	a	a	a
Pennsylvania	d	a	d	d	d	d
Rhode Island	d	a	d	d	d	a
South Carolina	d	a	d	d	d	d
South Dakota	a	a	a	a	a	d
Tennessee	d	a	d	d	d	d
Texas	d	a	d	d	d	d
Utah	a	a	a	d	a	d
Vermont	d	a	d	d	d	d
Virginia	d	a	d	d	d	d
Washington	a	a	a	d	a	a
West Virginia	d	a	d	d	d	d
Wisconsin	d	a	d	d	d	a
Wyoming	d	a	a	d	a	a
TOTALS	24	49	21	18	23	18