Local ballot measure elections in 2016
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| • Power struggle between state and local governments | ||
| • Using local measures to advance national agendas | ||
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The big picture
Ballotpedia’s research and past coverage indicated that the following would be the primary storylines for local ballot measure elections in 2016.
Statewide and national agendas
Local politics has always been affected by larger agendas and issues, as well as outside interests and funding. In local ballot measure races, the influence of state or national interests on local issues has been brought into sharp relief when advocates for certain statewide and national agendas or outside corporations back local measures. Below are some instances that highlight this aspect of local ballot measures.
Marijuana
- The National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML) supported multiple statewide and local efforts to legalize marijuana, including an initiative campaign proposed for 2016 in Kansas City, Missouri.
- The Safer Michigan Coalition backed over a dozen city marijuana legalization and decriminalization initiatives in the past decade.
Minimum wage
- Local minimum wage reform is often backed by statewide or national organizations such as 15 Now. Minimum wage increases were proposed as ballot measures in the following cities:
Fracking
- Anti-fracking measures and ordinances were backed by organizations like the Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund (CELDF) and efforts to prevent or invalidate such local laws by state oil and gas associations, certain state lawmakers and other supporters of the industry followed.
LGBT issues
- An LGBT anti-discrimination referendum in Houston, which was known as the "HERO ordinance," was supported by groups like Equality Texas, Freedom For All Americans, and the Human Rights Campaign. The U.S. Pastor Council opposed the anti-discrimination ordinance.
State vs. Local
As activists have turned to local ballot measures to push agendas such as bans on genetically modified organisms (GMOs), higher minimum wages, LGBT anti-discrimination ordinances, marijuana legalization, and anti-fracking restrictions, advocates of opposing agendas have teamed up with some who think that power over certain issues should belong exclusively to state governments to diminish the authority of local government entities. In some states, opposition to local ballot measures concerning contentious issues has been shown by officials at the state level, and conflict between the authority of local government entities and state governments has become an important narrative in U.S. politics. This power struggle is intensified by the shift toward Republican control in statewide governments and the success of left-leaning candidates in local elections. Below are some of the instances in which this story played out in 2015—setting the stage for local ballot measures in 2016—or played out in 2016:
Fracking
- A court case and a proposed statewide initiative in Colorado both concerned the authority of local government entities to enact restrictions on the oil and gas industry.
- In both Texas and Oklahoma, state lawmakers passed bills in 2015 prohibiting local laws governing the oil and gas industry, including fracking. These bills were responses to a local anti-fracking initiative in Denton and a proposed anti-fracking ordinance in Stillwater, Oklahoma. The Denton City Council rescinded the anti-fracking initiative to comply with the new state law.
- In Ohio in 2015, groups of activists supported by the Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund (CELDF) collected signatures to qualify anti-fracking and anti-pipeline initiative charters for ballots in five counties. The secretary of state blocked the initiatives from going before voters, citing preemption by state law and failure to include an alternative form of government. A supreme court ruling agreed with the secretary of state on the more technical government form argument but refused to rule on the content of the initiatives. This left the question of whether state law preempts local law concerning the oil and gas industry unanswered.
- At the end of 2016, state lawmakers passed House Bill 463, which, among many other provisions, was designed to restrict county charter petitions to "the exercise of only those powers that have vested in, and the performance of all duties imposed upon counties and county offices by law." Opponents argued that this provision would be used to prevent local charter petitions with anti-fracking provisions and that the bill was a response to local anti-fracking efforts. Others stated that the provision restricting charter petitions could also be used to block marijuana-related laws from local charters.
LGBT issues
- In 2015, lawmakers in Arkansas passed Senate Bill 202, prohibiting cities and counties from enacting laws to protect any class or group of persons not protected by state law. This bill targeted at least seven cities and one county that had enacted LGBT anti-discrimination ordinances as of December 2015. Some city attorneys stepped forward to defend the local laws, saying the state law had no effect on the city and county ordinances. But the author of SB 202 said the bill clearly invalidated any local laws protecting lesbian, gay and transgender individuals. A court case was possible.
Minimum wage
- In 2015, Missouri legislators approved Missouri House Bill 722, which was designed to prohibit any local law from imposing a minimum wage higher than the state-set minimum wage. This law was an important element behind the Kansas City attorney removing two minimum wage-related ballot items from the Kansas City ballot for the election on November 3, 2015.
Marijuana
- An initiative legalizing marijuana in Wichita, Kansas, was challenged in court on the basis of preemption by state law after voters approved it on April 7, 2015. Kansas Attorney General Derek Schmidt spearheaded the effort against the marijuana initiative in Wichita. On January 22, 2016, the Kansas Supreme Court ruled that the initiative was invalid.[1]
- A marijuana decriminalization initiative approved in Toledo, Ohio, in September 2015 was challenged in court by Attorney General Mike DeWine (R), Sheriff John Tharp, and Lucas County Prosecutor Julia Bate. The lawsuit contended that the city does not have the authority to reduce penalties for offenses considered felonies according to state law. The lawsuit also argued that it was illegal to prescribe crimes without allowing penalties.
Genetically modified organisms (GMOs)
- A GMO ban in Maui, Hawaii, was also challenged in court based on a "state preemption" argument.
Local measures across California
Over 800 local ballot measures were decided in California in 2016. Over 570 local measures were decided throughout the state in 2014 and about 530 measures were on local California ballots in 2012. In 2016, many were used by city councils, school district trustees, and county supervisors to ask voters to approve taxes and bonds. Others appeared as citizen initiatives on the ballot through signature petitions concerning a wide variety of issues. The charts below show statistics for local California ballot measures in 2016.
| Topic |  Approved
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 Defeated
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|---|---|---|
| All | 634 | 199 |
| Wages | 1 | 1 |
| Marijuana | 53 | 19 |
| Fracking | 2 | 0 |
| Taxes | 197 | 85 |
| Bonds | 230 | 23 |
| Development | 35 | 27 |
| Housing | 15 | 11 |
| Election law | 42 | 10 |
Local measures across the United States
Below are lists of local ballot measures with election dates in 2016 broken out according to topic, state, and election date, as well as a snapshot of our coverage of notable measures.
By topic
Below are the most notable topics addressed on local ballot measures in 2016.
Fracking
- See also: Local fracking on the ballot
An initiative designed to ban fracking was on the ballot for voters in Butte County on June 7, 2016. Proponents of this initiative tried to put the measure on the November 2014 ballot, but, after a lawsuit concerning the wording and formatting of the signature petitions delayed proceedings, the initiative was put on the June 2016 ballot.
An initiative designed to ban fracking and other "extreme oil extraction methods" was also on the November 2016 ballot for voters in Monterey County. It was approved.
Backed by the Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund (CELDF), local activists tried to put an anti-fracking initiative on the November 2015 ballot in Columbus. After the group failed to gather enough signatures to qualify the measure for an election in 2015, they announced that they would try again in 2016. The measure was not put on the ballot in 2016 either.
In 2015, activists also sought similar initiatives in five counties and the city of Youngstown. The county initiatives were blocked from the ballot first by the Ohio Secretary of State and then by the Ohio Supreme Court. The initiative reached the ballot in Youngstown for the fifth time, but it was defeated.
Minimum wage
In 2014, the San Diego City Council approved a minimum wage ordinance known as the Earned Sick Leave-Minimum Wage Ordinance that was designed to increase the city's minimum wage to $11.50 per hour by 2017. Mayor Kevin Faulconer vetoed the ordinance, but the city council voted to overturn the veto and enact the bill. Through a veto referendum petition campaign, opponents of the minimum wage hike, backed by a coalition of businesses, collected enough signatures to suspend enactment of the minimum wage law and put the ordinance before voters on June 7, 2016.
In 2015, the Los Angeles Workers Assembly filed the paperwork necessary to start circulating an initiative to raise the city's minimum wage to $15 per hour. Petitioners did not qualify the measure for the ballot in 2015, but they could still have collected signatures to put the initiative before Los Angeles voters in 2016. One of two competing statewide $15 per hour minimum wage initiatives were proposed that would have made the city measure unnecessary. Ultimately, the proposed statewide initiative that was successfully qualified for the ballot was withdrawn by proponents when the state legislature passed Senate Bill 3, enacting a $15 per hour statewide minimum wage phased in over time.
The D.C. chapter of the Working Families Party collected enough signatures to qualify a $15 per hour minimum wage initiative for the ballot in the nation's capital. The minimum wage increase was scheduled to go before voters on November 8, 2016, but Harry Wingo, president of the D.C. Chamber of Commerce, filed a lawsuit against the city's board of elections and ethics seeking an injunction to keep the initiative off the ballot. The lawsuit claimed that the petition language's description of the initiative as a proposal to "gradually increase" the city's minimum wage was misleading. The lawsuit also pointed out that the terms of all three members of the city's board of elections had expired before certifying this initiative for the ballot, arguing that this invalidated the initiative. The lawsuit indirectly questioned the validity of 2015 mayoral and city council elections since the board of elections certified the results for these races after their terms had expired.
Law enforcement
A group of activists in Minneapolis tried to qualify an initiative for the ballot in 2014 that was designed to require personal brutality insurance for city police officers. The petitioners failed to collect enough signatures to force the issue before voters in 2014 but announced that they would try again in 2016. In 2016, the group collected and submitted enough signatures to qualify the measure for the ballot. The Minnesota Supreme Court, however, removed the proposed charter amendment from the ballot citing state law requiring cities to provide legal support for city employees. The Minnesota Supreme Court also removed a proposed initiative to raise the city's minimum wage from the ballot.
The police insurance proposal would have required each police officer to carry insurance against complaints of brutality or use of excessive force. According to initiative proponents, the insurance for police officers against whom many complaints were issued would become very expensive ultimately preventing abuse or pushing bad police officers out of the police force. Dave Bicking, an organizer of the petition effort, said, "If you're a really, really bad driver, it becomes too expensive to drive or even own a car anymore. Similarly, some officers would become uninsurable, and that would finally get those officers off the force.”[2]
Following the shooting of Michael Brown in 2015, an initiative to require police officers to wear body cameras was proposed for the Ferguson, Missouri, ballot in 2016.
LGBT issues
Early in 2016, the LGBT anti-discrimination debate in Jacksonville, Florida, centered around whether to let the voters or the city council decide the fate of a proposed ordinance prohibiting discrimination against lesbians, gays and transgenders. A contingent on the council, as well as a vocal group of city pastors, are fighting to put the issue before voters and have threatened a veto referendum petition campaign if the city council approves an ordinance themselves. City Councilman Tommy Hazouri pushed for the council to pass the proposal without consulting voters, saying, "There's a reason that civil rights measures and issues of human rights aren't voted on by the majority. Often these are issues that impact the minority. It's not appropriate to have the majority vote on the rights of the minority." The measure did not end up on the ballot.[3]
Development and housing
- Los Angeles, California: "Build Better LA" Initiative Vs. "Restrictions on General Plan Amendments" Initiative
- Note: While proponents of the "Restrictions on General Plan Amendments" Initiative, known as the "Neighborhood Integrity" Initiative, originally targeted the November 2016 election, they announced in March 2016 that they would postpone their measure until the election on March 7, 2017.
Two competing Los Angeles initiatives related to development and housing were filed in late 2015 and early 2016, respectively. Proponents of both had until mid-June 2016 to collect enough signatures to put the measures on the November 2016 ballot. The Coalition to Preserve L.A. (CPLA), which was behind the Restrictions on General Plan Amendments Initiative, known as the "Neighborhood Integrity" Initiative, were cleared to begin circulating its initiative on January 4, 2016. The group announced, however, that it would target the election on March 7, 2017, instead of the November 2016 election, citing the fact that the November 2016 ballot was likely to be crowded with federal and state legislative races and between 10 and 20 statewide initiative ballot measures. The measure was designed to restrict most development projects and prohibit project-specific changes to the General Plan of the city. Provisions also included a moratorium on all density-increasing construction for up to two years, except projects consisting entirely of affordable housing.[4]
A coalition of labor unions, transit advocates, and affordable housing proponents filed the competing measure, which was designed to encourage development that includes affordable housing and uses local labor while restricting other projects. This "Build Better LA" initiative was filed with city elections officials on February 17, 2016.
By election date
JanuaryFebruaryMarchApril
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JulyAugustSeptemberOctoberNovember
December |
By state
Click on the map below for information about local ballot measures in a particular state.
See also
| Notable measures | Local measures | News and analysis |
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Footnotes
- ↑ Raw Story, "Kansas Supreme Court strikes down local ordinance reducing penalty for low-level pot possession," January 22, 2016
- ↑ The Spokesman-Reporter, "New campaign to end police brutality," December 11, 2014
- ↑ News4Jax, "Pastors want public vote on HRO amendment," December 10, 2015
- ↑ Neighborhood Integrity Initiative Communications Director, "NEIGHBORHOOD BALLOT PLAN'S SUPPORTERS AIM FOR MARCH 2017 CITY ELECTION," March 15, 2016
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