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The following data is a compilation of all ballot measures in all fifty states from 1902-2016. It includes such variables as whether the measure passed or failed, the percentage of "yes" votes for each ballot measure, and categories of issue area the ballot measures sought to address. This data comes from the National Conference of State Legislatures.

Codebook

Data Files

This database of all U.S. state ballot measures attempted from 1902 – 2016 was compiled directly from the National Conference of State Legislatures’ (NCSL) “Ballot Measures Database.” The database includes all types of ballot measures (e.g., legislative referendum, initiative, popular referendum), type of election (e.g., general, primary, special), whether a measure passed or failed, the percentage yes votes for the measure, and the category of topic area (e.g., abortion, banking and finance, bond measure, business and commerce, civil and constitutional law, criminal, alcohol and drugs, education, gambling and lottery, health, human services, insurance, labor and employment, legislatures, local government, natural resources, state government, tax and revenue). Topic area categories were created by NCSL and each measure was categorized into one or more topic areas by NCSL. More information on each ballot measure can be found at NCSL’s website for the “Ballot Measures Database".

Financial support for compiling this database from NCSL’s website was provided by Michigan State University’s Institute for Public Policy and Social Research (IPPSR) (East Lansing, Michigan) as a component of the Correlates of State Policy Project and Hope College (Holland, Michigan). Research assistance was provided by Irene Gerrish and Joseph McClusky, both at Hope College. For more information visit the Correlates of State Policy Project

Suggested Citations:

National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL). 2016. Ballot Measures Database. Accessed at: http://www.ncsl.org/research/elections-and-campaigns/ballot-measures-database.aspx.

Jordan, Marty P. and Matt Grossmann. 2016. The Correlates of State Policy Project v.1.10. East Lansing, MI: Institute for Public Policy and Social Research (IPPSR).

Variables

  • balloted Unique ballot identification number
  • st U.S. state postal code abbreviation
  • state U.S. state name where ballot measure was proposed
  • stateno U.S. state Census code
  • state_fips U.S. state Federal Information Processing Standards (FIPS) code
  • state_icpsr U.S. state Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research (ICPSR) state code
  • year Year ballot measure was on the ballot (1902 – 2016)
  • ballotname Name of the ballot measure
  • ballotdescrip Description of the ballot measure
  • type Type of ballot measure (e.g., legislative referendum, popular referendum, initiative, other)
  • electiontype Type of election (e.g., general, primary, special) in which measure was on the ballot
  • passed If the ballot measure passed (1), if the ballot measure failed or status is unknown/undecided (0)
  • pctyesvotes Percentage of votes in favor of the ballot measure
  • unknownstatus If the pass/fail status of the ballot measure is unknown or undecided (1), if the ballot measure’s passage status is known (0)
  • unofficialvotetotal If the vote total in favor of the ballot measure is an unofficial vote total (1), if the vote total in favor of the ballot measure is the official vote total (0)
  • topicarea All topic areas for the ballot measure, categorized by NCSL
  • abort If the ballot measure falls under the Abortion topic area (1), otherwise (0)
  • agricult If the ballot measure falls under the Agriculture topic area (1), otherwise (0)
  • animalrights_huntfish If the ballot measure falls under Animal Rights/Hunting & Fishing topic area (1), otherwise (0)
  • arts_cult If the ballot measure falls under the Arts & Culture topic area (1), otherwise (0)
  • banking_finance If the ballot measure falls under the Banking & Financial Services topic area (1), otherwise (0)
  • bond_meas If the ballot measure falls under the Bond Measures topic area (1), otherwise (0)
  • budgets If the ballot measure falls under the Budgets topic area (1), otherwise (0)
  • bus_commerce If the ballot measure falls under the Business & Commerce topic area (1), otherwise (0)
  • civil_conlaw If the ballot measure falls under the Civil & Constitutional Law topic area (1), otherwise (0)
  • criminal If the ballot measure falls under the Criminal Justice topic area (1), otherwise (0)
  • drug If the ballot measure falls under the Drug/Alcohol/Tobacco Policy topic area (1), otherwise (0)
  • econdev If the ballot measure falls under the Economic Development topic area (1), otherwise (0)
  • ed_higher If the ballot measure falls under the Education: Higher Ed topic area (1), otherwise (0)
  • ed_prek12 If the ballot measure falls under the Education: PreK-12 topic area (1), otherwise (0)
  • elections If the ballot measure falls under the Elections topic area (1), otherwise (0)
  • elections_initiative If the ballot measure falls under the Elections Initiative Process topic area (1), otherwise (0)
  • energy_electric If the ballot measure falls under the Energy & Electric Utilities topic area (1), otherwise (0)
  • environ If the ballot measure falls under the Environmental Protection topic area (1), otherwise (0)
  • ethics_lobby_camfin If the ballot measure falls under Ethics/Lobbying/Campaign Finance (1), otherwise (0)
  • fedgov If the ballot measure falls under the Federal Government topic area (1), otherwise (0)
  • gambling_lottery If the ballot measure falls under the Gambling & Lotteries topic area (1), otherwise (0)
  • health If the ballot measure falls under the Health topic area (1), otherwise (0)
  • humanservices If the ballot measure falls under the Human Services topic area (1), otherwise (0)
  • insurance If the ballot measure falls under the Insurance topic area (1), otherwise (0)
  • judiciary If the ballot measure falls under the Judiciary topic area (1), otherwise (0)
  • juvenile_justice If the ballot measure falls under the Juvenile Justice topic area (1), otherwise (0)
  • labor_employ If the ballot measure falls under the Labor & Employment topic area (1), otherwise (0)
  • landuse_proprights If the ballot measure falls under the Land Use / Property Rights topic area (1), otherwise (0)
  • legislatures If the ballot measure falls under the Legislatures topic area (1), otherwise (0)
  • localgov If the ballot measure falls under the Local Government topic area (1), otherwise (0)
  • military_vet If the ballot measure falls under the Military & Veterans Affairs topic area (1), otherwise (0)
  • natresourc If the ballot measure falls under the Natural Resources topic area (1), otherwise (0)
  • redistricting If the ballot measure falls under the Redistricting topic area (1), otherwise (0)
  • stategov If the ballot measure falls under the State Government topic area (1), otherwise (0)
  • tribalrelat If the ballot measure falls under the State-Tribal Relations topic area (1), otherwise (0)
  • tax_rev If the ballot measure falls under the Tax & Revenue topic area (1), otherwise (0)
  • telecom_it If the ballot measure falls under the Telecom & Info Technology topic area (1), otherwise (0)
  • termlimits If the ballot measure falls under the Term Limits topic area (1), otherwise (0)
  • transportation If the ballot measure falls under the Transportation topic area (1), otherwise (0)
  • cumulbystate Cumulative counter of ballot measures by state
  • totalbystate Total number of ballot measures by state proposed between 1902 – 2016