10/30/2024 | News release | Distributed by Public on 10/31/2024 04:58
Never have voters in so many states had to vote on so many statewide ballot measures about voting. Most Americans will vote on one or more of over 145 total ballot measures on Nov. 5, while Louisianans will consider five in their December general election.
Of these measures, 24 will ask voters to decide how elections will be run in their states. Ballot measures have long been used to make changes to voter eligibility, to establish new redistricting procedures and even to change the ballot measure process itself. In 2024, voters nationwide will see the largest number of election ballot measures in more than a decade. Only 2018 has come close in recent years, when voters saw 21 election-related measures.
Voters in nine states and Washington, D.C., will decide on changing their state's approach to primary elections and adopting or rejecting ranked choice voting. In fact, these topics are linked in six states, where ballot measures will attempt to both restructure primaries and implement or prohibit ranked choice voting.
Some voters will consider whether to require partisan primaries, where each party has its own primary election to determine which candidate advances to the general election. Others will decide whether to adopt a multiparty primary, where any voter can vote regardless of party affiliation, candidates representing all parties run against each other and anywhere from two to five candidates advance to the general election.
Approaches to multiparty primaries vary by state. Arizona's Proposition 140 allows anywhere from the top two to the top five candidates to advance to the general election, while the other states with multiparty primary measures require top-four or top-five elections.
If Alaska voters decide to adopt partisan primaries and prohibit ranked choice voting, they will reverse course from 2020, when they adopted top-four primaries and ranked choice voting in another ballot measure. Likewise, if Idaho voters decide to implement ranked choice voting, they will repeal the state's prohibition on the practice, which was just enacted in 2023. Meanwhile, Montana voters will decide whether to require a candidate to receive a majority of votes to win an election. Adopting a majority-to-win requirement without also implementing ranked choice voting, which Montana outlawed in 2023, could leave the state in an interesting position: It may have to repeal its ranked choice voting ban or prepare to hold runoff elections.
Voters in eight states will decide whether to amend their constitutions to clarify that only citizens are allowed to vote. It is already unlawful for noncitizens to vote in state and federal elections. (A small handful of localities allow nonresidents or noncitizens to vote in some local elections.) Many state constitutions say, for example, "All citizens over the age of 18 can vote." If passed, these ballot measures generally seek to change "all" to "only," clarifying that voters must be U.S. citizens. Voters in Alabama, Colorado and Florida approved citizenship voting requirements in recent years. Time will tell if voters in Idaho, Iowa, Kentucky, Missouri, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina and Wisconsin join their ranks this year.
In addition to these trends, voters will consider questions on several other election topics:
Beyond the 24 measures relating to voting itself, voters in a few states will consider measures related to redistricting and campaign finance:
For information on these proposals and more, see NCSL's Statewide Ballot Measures Database. To get a preview of what's coming in November and follow along with our election analysis, see the State Elections 2024 page.
Helen Brewer is a policy specialist in NCSL's Elections and Redistricting Program.