Ballots become battlegrounds for voting rules, redistricting, election power

More than a third of state ballot measures that voters will be asked to consider this year relate to democracy, with questions on voting rights, election processes, redistricting and similar issues.

"It's the redistricting fights that are really getting heated after the Trump administration began pressuring Republican-led states to shore up the GOP majority in Congress in preparation for the midterm election," said Quentin Savwoir, director of programs and strategy at the Ballot Initiative Strategy Center, a progressive policy organization that tracks ballot initiatives.

For example, next week Virginians will be asked whether they want to temporarily allow the state to redraw its congressional districts, in response to aggressive congressional map changes in other states that have been encouraged by President Donald Trump. If approved, the proposal could create four Democrat-leaning districts and affect the balance of power in the U.S. House of Representatives.

Early voting on the referendum is already underway, with polls showing it has a narrow margin of support.

Meanwhile in Missouri, supporters of a citizen-led referendum that challenges the state's recently gerrymandered congressional map say they have enough signatures to get their measure on the November ballot. The map, passed last year by Missouri's Republican-majority legislature at Trump's urging, carves an area around Kansas City - currently represented by a Black Democrat - into three Republican-favored districts.

As of March 31, 83 ballot measures have already qualified for the ballot this year in states across the country, though that number could rise as residents continue to gather signatures and legislators vote to add their proposals, according to the Ballot Initiative Strategy Center. Another 341 measures are in the process of qualifying.

Currently, 31 of those 83 measures are democracy related, with another 87 democracy-related proposals in the works.

Some of this year's democracy-related initiatives also focus on requiring identification to vote. In Nevada and North Carolina, for example, voters will be asked to consider constitutional amendments that would require voters to present photo identification.

Ballot measures are questions put before voters on local or statewide ballots. They typically land on a ballot in one of two ways: Either citizens write a proposed law and gather enough signatures to get it on the ballot, or the state legislature proposes a measure and asks voters to approve it. Citizen-led ballot initiatives are allowed in 19 states.

In recent years, as more voters have approved initiatives around progressive causes such as raising the minimum wage, legalizing abortion or expanding Medicaid, conservative legislators in states such as Florida and Missouri have tried to limit such citizen-led ballot initiatives.

Already this year, dozens of bills have been proposed that would create more obstacles to citizen-led initiatives. The bills would impose hurdles such as adding restrictions for signature gathering, raising the vote threshold required for a ballot measure to pass, or giving lawmakers more power over ballot language, according to The Fairness Project, a nonprofit that advocates for increased use of ballot measures.

This year, a larger share of ballot measures have been referred by state legislators, a shift from 2024 when a wave of citizen-led initiatives dominated the November ballot.

In some states, citizen-led proposals and opposing legislatively referred proposals "are creating a very crowded ballot that may confuse voters," said Chris Melody Fields Figueredo, executive director at the Ballot Initiative Strategy Center.

"People might be having to run ‘yes' or ‘no' campaigns at the same time. So voter education is going to be incredibly important."

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Stateline reporter Anna Claire Vollers can be reached atavollers@stateline.org.

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This story was originally published April 17, 2026 at 12:21 PM.