Voting on Voting: 2024’s Election-Related Ballot Measures

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.

Primaries and Ranked Choice Voting

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.

• Alaska and Arizona have ballot measures seeking to require partisan primaries.
• Arizona, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, South Dakota and the district will vote on adopting multiparty primaries.
• Alaska and Missouri will decide on prohibiting ranked choice voting. Since 2022, 10 other states have done so in statute.
• Arizona, Colorado, Idaho, Nevada, Oregon and the district will vote on implementing ranked choice voting.

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.

Citizenship Voting Requirements

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.

Election Grab Bag

In addition to these trends, voters will consider questions on several other election topics:

• Connecticut voters will decide whether to authorize the Legislature to implement no-excuse absentee voting, joining 28 other states that already do so.
• Illinois will ask voters for a nonbinding opinion on whether to pass a law penalizing candidates who attempt to interfere with election workers' duties.
• Iowans will decide on requiring citizenship to vote and whether to allow 17-year-olds who will be 18 by the time of a general election to vote in a primary.
• Nevada voters will decide whether to adopt a photo voter ID.

Election-Adjacent Measures

Beyond the 24 measures relating to voting itself, voters in a few states will consider measures related to redistricting and campaign finance:

• Florida voters will decide whether to repeal the state's public campaign finance program.
• Maine will ask voters whether to impose a cap on contributions to super PACs.
• Ohio voters will consider whether to adopt a new form of redistricting commission that would replace the one adopted via ballot measure in 2015. Several states have implemented citizen commissions via ballot measure in recent years, including Colorado, Michigan and Virginia. Commission structures and redistricting procedures vary by state, and Ohio's measure will add yet another take on the process if it passes.

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.

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