How to Start a Petition to Get Legislation on a Ballot

Currently, less than half of the U.S. states permit the initiative process, and limitations on how to carry out the process vary from state to state. Knowing the laws in your state will help ensure a successful petition drive.

Instructions

Difficulty: Moderately challenging

Things You’ll Need:

• Clipboards

1. Contact the office of the Secretary of State in your state and request a copy of the initiative and referendum handbook. Read it thoroughly before you proceed with drafting a petition for your proposed initiative.
2. Get online and research the initiative process, starting at a major search engine like Google or Yahoo. You can pick up a lot of information, helpful hints and advice from Web sites that deal with this topic.
3. Draw up your proposed petition according to the law as expressed in the handbook you obtained in Step 1.
4. Submit the petition for review and pay a registration or processing fee if required. In some states, the review consists of simple approval of the title and format, while in other states a complete legal review is required.
5. Begin circulating the petition if it is approved. The state may provide the petitions, or you may have to take the approved form and copy it at your own expense. Again, this varies from state to state.
6. Gather as many signatures as are needed to get the initiative on the ballot. The number of signatures is usually determined by the percentage of votes cast in your state's last election for governor. For example, in California, a petition must contain the signatures of 8 percent of the total votes cast for the position of governor in the last election. This number goes as high as 15 percent in some states.
7. Return the signed petitions within the allotted time. All states that have the initiative process have deadlines relative to the election.
8. Wait while the signatures on the petitions are verified. (All signers must be registered voters within the state, and in some states signatures must be collected from specified geographical areas.)

Tips & Warnings

• The following states currently have the initiative process: Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, the District of Columbia, Florida, Idaho, Illinois, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, South Dakota, Utah and Washington.
• Currently, you cannot sign an initiative petition online. A petition for an initiative that would allow this in California is circulating and may appear on the ballot soon.
• Professional signature gatherers can be hired in some states to circulate petitions.
• If you fail to gather enough signatures on your petition, your initiative will generally be automatically rejected. It is suggested that you exceed the number of signatures required by a comfortable margin, as some are almost always discarded when they cannot be verified.