Initiatives and Referenda

Ballot Issues: Initiatives and Referenda

The Montana YMCA Youth and Government Program offers Lobbyists, Reporters, Pages, Attorney and other non-legislators the chance to have their say: Ballot Issues!

What are Ballot Issues?

There are two types of Ballot issues: Initiatives and Referenda. These are real world ways of putting laws and amendments to the Montana Constitution on the ballot for the people to decide.

An Initiative is basically an act of legislation that bypasses the legislature and goes to the people for a vote. Individual citizens can introduce an Initiative to change a law or amend the Montana Constitution. To get it on the ballot, it requires a certain amount of signatures.

A Referendum is when an act of the legislature is put to a popular vote. It is the required method for a legislature-drafted amendment to the Montana Constitution, but the legislature can decide to put ordinary acts to the voters as well (especially real controversial ones). A Referundum has to pass the Legislature by a 2/3 majority. If it does, it goes to the "qualified electors of the state of Montana," i.e. the voters.

Here's the dictionary definition:

INITIATIVES: The right and procedure by which citizens can propose a law by petition and ensure its submission to the electorate.
REFERENDA: The submission of a proposed public measure or actual statute to a direct popular vote.
(Definitions from the American Heritage Electronic Dictionary, copyright 1993)

Montana YMCA Youth and Government Ballot Issues

Here is how Ballot Issues will work at the Montana YMCA Youth and Government Program:

INITIATIVES and CONSTITUTIONAL INITIATIVES:

Any participant in the Montana YMCA Youth and Government Program can create a ballot initiative. (However, Legislators cannot substitute an initiative for their bill writing requirement)
Initiatives must be composed and submitted prior to the session by the March 1 bill deadline and will appear in the billbook.

The Initiative needs to have:

A Statement of Purpose for the petition and ballot. The statement should not exceed 50 words.
The actual law to be changed or added.
An argument FOR the proposed initiative that is between 150 and 200 words long.
The EXACT language as it will appear on the ballot. (click here for Sample)

When participants register for the session on Sunday, petitions will be picked up by the authors of the initiatives and they can begin gathering signatures.
Individuals interested in writing a 150-200 word statement AGAINST the initiative may do so and submit it to the Youth and Government Secretary of State by Monday at adjournment for publication in the Tuesday paper.

Petition signatures:

35% of all registered delegates must sign the petition for an Initiative to qualify for the ballot.
45% of all registered delegates must sign the petition for a Constitutional Initiative to qualify.
note: if there are 400 registered delegates, this will mean 140 signatures for a regular initiative and 180 signatures for a Constitutional Initiative.
Petition signatures must include members of at least 1/2 (2/3 for amendment) of the delegations and no more than 50% can be from legislators (i.e. House, Senate and First Year House members combined)
The Secretary of State (SOS) will certify all signatures are accurate, meeting all above criteria.
Petitions are due at 10AM on Tuesday.

Qualifying Initiatives will appear on the ballot at the Tuesday night election for voter approval.

REFERENDA:

We already have about 8-10 bills per year that are introduced in referenda form, so we are not introducing a new activity. But by putting these referenda on the ballot if passed, we are now correctly acting on this type of legislation.

Bills introduced in the Youth Legislature that will amend the Montana Constitution must be submitted in Referendum form (Click here for the Bill Writing Guide to see how this is done)
All Referenda must pass the Legislature by a 2/3 majority vote. (note: Referenda are NOT initiatives. Initiatives do not go into the legislature at all. You collect signatures from the people to get Initiatives on the ballot.) This means 100 Legislators total, not 2/3 of each chamber. (This is in accordance with the Montana Constitution)
An introduced bill that is not a Constitutional Amendment may only be amended into an voter referendum in Committee, same as all other bill amendments.
All referenda will be placed at the front of the respective dockets of each committee. When the Secretary of State (SOS) gets those which pass from committee, s/he will promptly notify Speaker/President that they have referenda to consider, and those officers will place them early on the docket.
Transmittal deadline for referenda will be adjournment Monday. Deadline for referunda to be passed by 2/3 majority will be noon Tuesday (transmittal for all other bills)
Referenda so passed will appear on the Tuesday evening election ballot for voter approval.
Lobbyists may submit an initiative and pro argument in lieu of a lobbyist paper.
The only referenda that may be introduced in the Youth Legislature are Constitutional Amendments.

The Montana Constitution Says:

" [Article III] Section 4. Initiative. (1) The people may enact laws by initiative on all matters except appropriations of money and local or special laws.
Section 5. Referendum. (1) The people may approve or reject by referendum any act of the legislature except an appropriation of money. A referendum shall be held either upon order by the legislature or upon petition signed by at least five percent of the qualified electors in each of at least one-third of the legislative representative districts.

(Article XIV) Section 8. Amendment by legislative referendum. Amendments to this constitution may be proposed by any member of the legislature. If adopted by an affirmative roll call vote of two-thirds of all the members thereof, whether one or more bodies, the proposed amendment shall be submitted to the qualified electors at the next general election.
Section 9. Amendment by initiative. (1) The people may also propose constitutional amendments by initiative.

Click here for the text of the entire Montana Constitution