Ballot measures on voting rights, redistricting reform, and campaign finance limits won big in 2018

In states and cities across the country, American voters resoundingly supported ballot measures to strengthen our democracy, voting last week to enact a slew of reforms on voting rights, redistricting, campaign finance, and even the structure of our electoral system itself. In an era when Republicans have enacted voting restrictions and historically extreme gerrymanders in state after state, and when even Democrats in some places have failed to do everything they can to protect the right to vote, these measures are a major advance for the cause of free and fair elections.

Chief among these are redistricting reform measures that easily passed in Colorado, Michigan, and Missouri, which we have previously detailed in depth. The first two states created independent redistricting commissions, while Missouri voters opted to make it the first state in the country to impose a specific statistical test of partisan fairness on state legislative redistricting. Unfortunately, a ballot initiative in Utah appears likely to just narrowly fail once remaining votes are counted, though that measure did not have the teeth the others do.

Meanwhile, Florida, Michigan, and Nevada all led the way in expanding the right to vote, with Florida voters smashing a Jim Crow-era restriction to automatically restore voting rights to up to 1.4 million citizens who have served out their felony sentences, a group that is disproportionately black. At the same time, Nevada and Michigan became the 12th and 13th states to enact automatic voter registration (as shown in the map at the top of this post). Michigan's measure also includes same-day registration, no-excuse absentee voting, and other reforms, turning Michigan from one of the worst states to one of the best states for voting access. Finally, Marylanders approved extending same-day registration to include Election Day itself. (It previously had been available only during the early voting period.)

North Carolina voters also struck a critical blow in favor of fair elections by rejecting a deceptively worded constitutional amendment backed by the illegally gerrymandered Republican legislature that would have let them pack the state Supreme Court to overturn its Democratic majority. They also defeated a separate amendment that would have allowed Republicans to gridlock the state Board of Elections so Democrats couldn’t restore early-voting availability the GOP had cut. With the failure of these amendments, and with civil rights lawyer Anita Earls, a Democrat, winning a key seat on the state Supreme Court, North Carolina’s courts could soon strike down the GOP's gerrymanders under the state constitution's guarantees of the right to vote and free elections.

However, not every measure was positive. Montana voters approved a GOP-backed proposal that includes making it a felony to turn in a stranger's absentee mail ballot. That targets Native American voters who live on rural reservations and rely on post office boxes, since those with limited transportation often rely on people who gather up multiple voters' ballots and bring them to the post office. Arkansas and North Carolina also backed GOP-supported voter ID measures, but just as with gerrymandering above, North Carolina’s Democratic Supreme Court could mitigate the worst of the new photo ID requirements.

Three localities voted on reforming their electoral systems, with Fargo, North Dakota, becoming the first American city to enact "approval voting" in place of plurality-winner elections. Voters will be able to cast one vote each for as many candidates as they like, and whoever has the most votes prevails. Memphis, Tennessee, voted down a repeal of a decade-old instant-runoff voting law that should now finally be implemented. Lastly, Lane County, Oregon, decided on a "STAR voting" system that combines aspects of approval and instant-runoff systems, but voters narrowly rejected it.

Voters also steadfastly supported placing greater limits on private campaign financing while voting to expand public financing in local elections. Denver, Colorado, created a generous matching system where participating candidates get $9 for every $1 in donations up to $50 per donation, and it also banned business and labor donations. New York City voters overwhelmingly favored lower campaign contribution limits and increased matching funds, and Portland, Oregon, finally established its first limits on campaign finance whatsoever. (Results have yet to be published for a Baltimore, Maryland, measure to create a public financing system.)

You can find a more expansive list of election-related 2018 ballot measures in the chart below, and you can view our full list of notable measures on a variety of topics in this spreadsheet. The spreadsheet details whether each measure was placed on the ballot by elected representatives or whether it was directly initiated by voters, as well as whether it's a statute or amends a state constitution or local government charter. You can also find additional posts in this series here.

ALABAMA	Amendment 4	Eliminates legislative special elections if a vacancy arises in the final year of the four-year term	Passed
ARKANSAS	Issue 2	Requires a photo ID to vote (already required by statute)	Passed
COLORADO	Amendment V	Lowers the age requirement for to run for legislative office from 25 to 21	Failed
COLORADO	Amendment Y	Establishes an independent congressional redistricting commission	Passed
COLORADO	Amendment Z	Establishes an independent legislative redistricting commission	Passed
FLORIDA	Amendment 4	Automatically restores voting rights to those who have completed their felony sentences, except for murder or felony sexual offenses	Passed
LOUISIANA	Amendment 1	Bans those with felony convictions from seeking office within five years of completing their sentence unless pardoned	Passed
MARYLAND	Question 2	Allows for same-day voter registration on Election Day instead of just during early voting	Passed
MICHIGAN	Proposal 2	Creates an independent redistricting commission	Passed
MICHIGAN	Proposal 3	Implements automatic and same-day voter registration, no-excuse absentee voting, straight-ticket voting, and routine election audits	Passed
MISSOURI	Amendment 1	Implements partisan fairness criterion for legislative redistricting, plus state lobbying and campaign finance restrictions	Passed
MONTANA	LR-129	Restricts those who aren't postal workers, elections officials, family members, caregivers, or acquaintances from turning in someone else's mail ballot	Passed
NEVADA	Question 5	Implements automatic voter registration	Passed
NORTH CAROLINA	Legislative Appointments to Elections Board	Transfers power to appoint the state board of elections from the governor to the legislature and creates a four-to-four deadlock between the major parties	Failed
NORTH CAROLINA	Voter ID Amendment	Requires photo ID to vote in person but not by mail absentee	Passed
NORTH DAKOTA	Measure 2	Bans non-citizens from voting in state or local elections	Passed
OKLAHOMA	State Question 798	Ends separate elections for lieutenant governor and provides for a joint ticket with the governor	Failed
SOUTH CAROLINA	Amendment 1	Makes the superintendent of education an appointed position	Failed
SOUTH DAKOTA	Constitutional Amendment W	Restores ethics reforms repealed by the legislature in 2017 and prohibits future legislative tampering with ballot initiatives without voter input	Failed
SOUTH DAKOTA	Constitutional Amendment X	Requires a 55 percent supermajority for constitutional amendment ballot measures	Failed
SOUTH DAKOTA	Constitutional Amendment Y	Creates a single-subject rule for constitutional amendments	Passed
SOUTH DAKOTA	Initiated Measure 24	Bans out-of-state contributions to ballot measure committees	Passed
UTAH	Proposition 4	Creates a bipartisan advisory redistricting commission and imposes nonpartisan standards on legislatively drawn maps	Uncalled
BALTIMORE, MD	Question H	Establishes public campaign financing for local elections	Uncalled
DENVER, CO	Measure 2E	Creates a public financing system to match donations at a 9:1 ratio up to $50 for participating candidates; bans corporate, business, and labor contributions; and lowers all contribution limits	Passed
FARGO, ND	Measure 1	Implements approval voting for local elections	Passed
GOLDEN, CO	Question 2E	Lowers the voting age to 16 in local elections	Failed
LANE COUNTY, OR	Measure 20-290	Implements "Score Then Automatic Runoff" for county elections and eliminates primaries	Failed
LOS ANGELES, CA	Amendment E	Realigns local primary election dates with state primary dates	Passed
MEMPHIS, TN	Referendum Ordinance No. 5677	Repeals instant-runoff voting law that hasn't been implemented yet	Failed
NEW YORK, NY	Question 1	Lowers the campaign contribution limit and increases the amount of matching public funds	Passed
PORTLAND, OR	Measure 26-200	Creates campaign contribution and expenditure limits for local office	Passed