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As a former longtime California voter, I used to spend lots of time poring over the pros and cons of the ballot measures I was being asked to consider — and there were lots! One year, there were 20 initiatives on the ballot. I’ve been asked to decide whether farm animals should live in more humane conditions, whether to ban certain animal traps used by hunters, and whether to allow slot machines at race tracks.
This year, California voters will be asked to weigh the fate of 14 initiatives, which puts the state on par with Colorado for the most on the ballot this November. And quite a few of them center on election-related issues.
Other states have them, too. There are 145 ballot measures before voters in 39 states this November, including 39 focused on election issues, a new record high, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.
“The amount of election-related measures appearing on the ballot has escalated pretty steadily for more than the last 10 years,” said Helen Brewer, senior policy specialist on elections and redistricting at the National Conference of State Legislatures.
The measures this year run the gamut from endorsing redrawn congressional maps to a new high of six voter identification measures.
Between 2004 and 2025, voters approved 10 of 13 voter ID ballot measures, said Nicole Fisher, a staff writer at Ballotpedia, the nonpartisan online political encyclopedia and election site. Thirty-six states now have some kind of voter ID law.
One of the most closely watched such initiatives this year is in California, where voters are considering a Republican-backed change to the state constitution that would require voters to provide ID. The measure would also require people voting by mail to provide the last four digits of a government ID number, such as a driver’s license.
Polling on the proposal shows that the measure faces an uphill battle.
Voters in Arizona are showing much stronger support in polls for a similar measure, Proposition 144, which would change the state constitution to require people to provide voter ID before casting a ballot in person or by mail.
The measure leaves it up to state lawmakers to figure out how to write the law if it passes. Various voting rights groups, including the ACLU of Arizona, warn that the measure could make it harder for Arizonans to vote by mail, which is the main way most residents cast ballots.
Meanwhile, a ballot measure in Alaska asks voters to toss out their current system for choosing political candidates, which puts the top four candidates on the general election ballot and uses ranked choice voting to choose the winner. Measure 2 would replace the system with a traditional partisan primary. Alaskans rejected a similar proposal in 2024 by 743 votes.
Alaska’s ranked choice voting process has been in the spotlight this year because incumbent U.S. Sen. Dan Sullivan, a Republican, is facing a challenger with the same name. Republicans tried — and failed — to force the lesser-known Dan Sullivan off the ballot. President Donald Trump just flew to Alaska to campaign for the senator, who faces a tight race against a Democratic candidate, former U.S. Rep. Mary Peltola, who is narrowly leading in the polls.
Unlike voter ID proposals, ballot measures to overhaul primary elections have fared poorly in recent years. In 2024, 11 states and the District of Columbia had measures that would have revamped their systems for choosing candidates; only the District of Columbia approved one, said Fisher.
Fisher said the spike in election-related ballot measures may be an extension of the attention such issues are getting from Trump, his supporters, and those challenging his preferred policies.
Trump has made election reforms a cornerstone of his second term. He has unsuccessfully pushed Congress to enact nationwide voter ID laws. He’s signed two election-related executive orders that have largely been neutered by the courts. And he pushed Republicans across the country to take the unusual step of redrawing congressional maps.
“We definitely do see some partisanship on both sides related to these measures,” Fisher said.
Voters in three states — Missouri, Colorado and Maryland — will be deciding the fate of redistricting proposals next month. Of the three, Missouri’s has followed the most tortured path to the ballot, involving multiple state and U.S. Supreme Court rulings.
Missouri’s measure asks voters to approve or reject new congressional lines drawn last fall by the Republican-controlled legislature that weakened Democratic chances in the state. The messy litigation meant the new lines were used for the primary election, but won’t be in place for the general.
Polling shows voters are evenly split on the measure, Proposition A.
Voters in six states will face measures explicitly restricting voting to U.S. citizens, continuing a trend that has seen voters approve every such proposal since 2018. Noncitizen voting is already prohibited in federal elections, and none of the six states with ballot measures currently allows it in statewide elections.
Dion Nissenbaum is Votebeat’s senior national reporter and is based in Houston. Contact Dion at dnissenbaum@votebeat.org.
