Changes to Ballot Initiatives Proposed

Liz Gullett

Dec 13, 2019

Members of the House Democratic Caucus announced a proposal changing the way that citizen-led ballot initiatives are handled in Michigan. Under current law, once a citizen’s initiative is validated for having the required number of signatures, the legislature can take a vote on the measure, or if they choose not to act it would go before voters on the next ballot.

Last year the legislature chose to vote on two ballot initiatives, mandating paid sick time and increasing the minimum wage. However, a short time after they voted to adopt both initiatives, they amended them by a simple majority vote, which caused a lot of anger from the Democratic caucus. If the ballot initiatives would have instead been adopted by voters at the ballot, any changes would have required a two-thirds vote by the legislature.

Under the proposed reform, citizen-led ballot initiatives would go directly to a statewide vote on the next ballot and the option for the legislature to act prior to that would be removed.

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