List of Washington ballot measures

rdf:langString List of Washington ballot measures

rdf:langString eq

rdf:langString US

rdf:langString The U.S. state of Washington has had a system of direct voting since gaining statehood in 1889. Citizens and the state legislature both have the ability to place new legislation, or legislation recently passed by the state legislature, on the ballot for a popular vote. Washington has three types of ballot measures that can be voted on in a general election: initiatives, referendums, and legislatively referred constitutional amendments. In order to be placed on the ballot, supporters of a measure must gather signatures from registered voters. From 1898 to 1912, the only ballot measures allowed were legislatively referred constitutional amendments. In 1912, an amendment successfully passed to create a citizen-led process for initiatives and referendums, and the first successful initiative was passed in 1914. Since adopting this process, ballot measures have become widely accepted as part of Washington's electoral system. As of 2020, over 2,000 different initiatives had been filed with the state, along with a significantly smaller number of referendums. Of those, only a fraction have received the required signatures to be placed on the ballot. In recent years, ballot measures have been used to legalize politically contentious policies such as assisted suicide, same-sex marriage, and marijuana use. The use of signature gatherers (workers paid to gather signatures for ballot measures) has attracted significant controversy in the state, as has some activists' aggressive approach to ballot measures.