The Hot Sheet

WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT THE BALLOT MEASURE LANDSCAPE RIGHT NOW

March 2026

The Toplines

• As of March 1, BISC is tracking 70 measures qualified for 2026 ballots. BISC is tracking 23 initiative campaigns that have submitted petition signatures that are currently being verified by state officials, as well as 194 additional ballot initiatives that are currently circulating petitions. 39 initiative applications that have been formally filed and 49 potential legislative proposals have cleared at least one chamber.
• BISC is closely monitoring a slate of anti‑trans ballot measures attempting to ban gender‑affirming care for minors, exclude trans students from sports, and more.
• This April, Virginia voters will decide on a ballot question to allow for temporary, emergency redistricting ahead of the November midterm election. As with California’s Prop. 50, this measure leaves it to voters to decide the trajectory of fair representation in America.
• In 2026, defending direct democracy will require early intervention, attention to rule changes as much as policy outcomes, and sustained focus on implementation and enforcement.

Confirmed

• Missouri Amendment 3: Near-Total Abortion Ban & Prohibition on Gender-Affirming Care for Minors(LR)
  • What’s Proposed:Although presented as an abortion measure, this constitutional amendment contains language that would block gender-affirming care for minors.

Potential

• Arizona House Concurrent Resolution 2003: Trans Student Exclusion from Schools Sports and Facilities (LR)
  • What’s Proposed:Under this proposed amendment, trans students would be barred from joining sports teams that best align with their gender identity. Use of bathrooms and locker rooms would also be limited to sex assigned at birth.
• Arizona Senate Concurrent Resolution 1006: Ban on Trans Student Names and Pronouns in Schools (LR)
  • What’s Proposed:Amends the Arizona constitution to prohibit teachers, counselors, and other school staff from referring to trans students by their chosen name or pronouns without written permission from parents. Also bans trans students from using bathrooms and locker rooms that align with their gender identity.
• Colorado #109: Trans Student Exclusion from School Sports (CI)
  • What’s Proposed:Would force all school sports programs to restrict student participation based on sex assigned at birth. It also prohibits organizations from filing complaints, opening investigations, or assigning consequences to schools who follow this rule.
• Colorado #110: Ban on Gender-Affirming Surgeries for Minors (CI)
  • What’s Proposed:Forbids healthcare providers from administering, and prescribing, gender-affirming care for minors. It also places new restrictions on insurance coverage, ensuring no state or federal funding can be applied.
• Colorado #108: “Children Are Not For Sale Act” (CI)
  • What’s Proposed:While this initiative appears on its surface to be strengthening existing human trafficking laws, its vague language could potentially be used to criminalize travel related to gender-affirming care for minors.
• Maine: “An Act to Designate School Sports Participation and Facilities by Sex” (CI)
  • What’s Proposed:Requires all schools to designate sports teams, bathrooms, and locker rooms by a person’s sex assigned at birth: male, female or co-ed. This has raised notable concerns among critics, as gender identity remains a category protected from discrimination under the Maine Human Rights Act.
• Nevada C-07-2026: Anti-Trans Sports Ban (CI)
  • What’s Proposed:Bans trans athletes from competing in female sports altogether and is part of Gov. Lombardo’s broader anti-trans rhetoric, which aims to drive his potential supporters to the polls at the expense of the well-being, safety and belonging of trans students across the state.
• Washington IL26-638: “Defending Equity in Interscholastic Sports” (CI)
  • What’s Proposed:Explicitly prohibits trans girls from participating in girls sports at school, using invasive physical exams and blood tests as the primary methods for establishing a student’s sex.

Ballot measures that target trans people including youth are an attack on fundamental freedoms and an attempt to write discrimination into law. Voters deserve policies that protect people’s dignity, not political tactics that single out vulnerable communities. These efforts are part of a broader strategy to hijack the people’s tool for political gain at the expense of the trans community’s well-being and belonging. Targeting groups through the ballot is not governance — it’s cruelty disguised as policy. We will continue to support our partners pushing back on these discriminatory attacks and building a world where all communities can flourish.

2026 Ballot Measure to Watch

Virginia: Allow Mid-Decade Congressional Redistricting (LR)

What It Does: Placed on the April 21 primary ballot, the amendment would allow the Virginia General Assembly to temporarily adopt new congressional districts ahead of the November 2026 midterm elections. The amendment is temporary; Virginia’s existing bipartisan redistricting process would automatically resume after the 2030 census.

Why It Matters: The measure is designed to favor Democratic candidates in four districts in order to level the national playing field in response to the Trump administration urging red states to secure a GOP-majority in Congress. Supporters like Virginians for Fair Elections stress that with states like Florida, Texas, and North Carolina redrawing their congressional maps without voter approval in order to favor Republican candidates, states like Virginia risk having their voices diminished if they don’t respond in-kind. 

BISC ANALYSIS: Amid Attempts to Rig the System, Redistricting Ballot Measures Can Be a Tool for Defending American Democracy: Recent gerrymandering schemes in Texas and Missouri have prompted states like California and now Virginia to pursue their own redistricting. But what might seem like tit-for-tat responses are set apart by one key factor: the ballot measure process. A ballot question grants Virginia voters the final say over a new congressional map, as opposed to legislation in Texas that effectively silences voters’ voices. 

It’s a critical distinction when facing righteous concerns over mid-decade redistricting specifically designed to tilt the odds in favor of one party or another. But in using direct democracy to propose these temporary maps, the power to decide the fate of fair representation in America sits exactly where it belongs: with the voters.

And whether it’s a question of redistricting, voter ID mandates, or even U.S. citizenship requirements, BISC remains equally focused on the larger question: how can we ensure that every community has the power and the tools to shape a democracy that truly works for all of us?

2026 Outlook: Direct Democracy at a Crossroads

The 2025 landscape marked a turning point for direct democracy in the United States. Across the year, BISC’s analysis documented a clear shift: attacks on ballot initiatives are no longer isolated, reactive, or limited to election cycles. They are increasingly systematic, institutionalized, and forward-looking — designed not just to block individual measures, but to permanently constrain the People’s Tool itself. As we enter 2026, these patterns point to a more coordinated and consequential phase of democratic contestation.

The most consistent trend of 2025 was the migration of conflict after voter approval. Nebraska’s delayed and restricted medical cannabis rollout, Missouri’s continued legal resistance to voter-approved reproductive rights, and repeated post-election litigation across states show that implementation has become the preferred terrain for neutralizing voter power.

In 2026, implementation fights will continue to intensify. Likely tactics include emergency or interim rulemaking that narrows voter mandates, strategic appointments to implementing bodies, serial lawsuits designed to delay benefits beyond election cycles, and legislative efforts to condition, sunset, or retroactively weaken voter-approved laws. These moves preserve the appearance of democratic compliance while denying voters the substance of their decisions.

Courts emerged in 2025 as central arbiters of direct democracy — and increasingly as targets. Judges who enforced voter-approved reforms faced political backlash, threats of impeachment, and public intimidation. Attorneys general and secretaries of state relied more heavily on preemptive and serial litigation to control outcomes through process rather than persuasion. In 2026, courts will remain pivotal. We should expect more efforts to delegitimize judicial enforcement as “anti-democratic,” even as courts serve as one of the last institutional checks on post-election sabotage.

If 2025 was the year these trends became unmistakable, 2026 will be the year they either consolidate or are interrupted. Direct democracy is being targeted not because it fails, but because it works — particularly for communities shut out of legislative power. The outlook for 2026 is clear: defending direct democracy will require early intervention, attention to rule changes as much as policy outcomes, and sustained focus on implementation and enforcement. The stakes are not confined to a single election cycle. They extend to whether popular sovereignty remains a living principle — or becomes a procedural illusion.

2026 Ballot Measure Landscape

As of March 1, BISC is tracking 70 measures qualified for 2026 ballots. BISC is tracking 23 initiative campaigns that have submitted petition signatures that are currently being verified by state officials, as well as 194 additional ballot initiatives that are currently circulating petitions. 39 initiative applications that have been formally filed and 49 potential legislative proposals have cleared at least one chamber.

2026 Ballot Measure Trends: What’s Next?

The success of California’s Prop. 50 could continue to weigh heavily on voters’ minds as advocates in Missouri attempt to repeal the state’s legislature’s gerrymandered map. But the fight extends well beyond redistricting, with other democracy-related measures showing a major divide between pro-voter expansion (same-day registration, rights restoration) and voting restriction (photo ID, citizenship proof). BISC’s role here is to defend the principle that direct democracy is a critical component of democracy itself. We must stay focused on the larger question: how can we ensure that every community has the power and the tools to shape a democracy that truly works for all of us?

A number of legislatively-referred measures on the 2026 ballot reflect a growing trend toward limiting the people’s initiative power, like increasing thresholds to pass measures, adding procedural hurdles like single-subject requirements, and more. While legislatures continue to undermine the will of the people, there is growing backlash from communities across the country against those attacks. There is a continued trend toward strengthening the initiative process and imposing supermajority requirements on legislative interference.

Amid rising authoritarianism, direct democracy is an increasingly vital tool for our liberation, and BISC continues to defend the will of the people in order to strengthen our democracy, center communities, and build, wield, and transform power.

Ballot Measure Progress

Progressive policies are passing at the ballot in Red, Blue, and Purple states such as Florida, Arizona, Missouri, and Ohio. Through the power of direct democracy, the people are transforming power, advancing racial equity, and galvanizing a new progressive base. 

Through the power of direct democracy, citizens have passed policies such as: 

• Minimum wage increases
• Protecting and expanding reproductive freedoms
• Decriminalization of marijuana
• Paid Family Leave
• Medicaid expansion
• Taxing the wealthy
• Restoration of voting rights
• Reparations
• Transforming public safety

Attacks on the Ballot Measure Process

In 2017, BISC monitored just 33 bills relating to the ballot measure process. Compare that to 2025 legislative sessions in which 295 bills were introduced in 43 states that would impact the ballot initiative process, at least 156 of which sought to restrict or undermine the process. 

What does an attack on direct democracy look like?

Some tactics used by lawmakers who are attempting to weaken the ballot initiative process include:

• Proposing legislation to make the ballot process harder to access
• Bringing forth legal challenges against initiatives that have been already been approved by voters
• Blocking the implementation of ballot measures that have already passed

Why are the attacks happening?

Efforts to undermine and weaken ballot measures have been increasing since the 2016 election in response to progressive wins and people-powered democracy at the ballot box. 

In many states, some politicians and wealthy special interests are trying to make it harder for voters to propose and pass ballot initiatives under the cover of so-called “reforms.” These attacks have escalated and have become more nuanced, sophisticated, and would have deeper impacts on the initiative process. These restrictive measures take a variety of forms, but they all serve the same function: to undermine the will of the people and diminish their decision-making power. BISC and our partners are fighting back against these attacks and spearheading the movement to #DefendDirectDemocracy. 

As we continue to face rising restrictions on voting rights, reproductive freedoms, and civil liberties, it is more important than ever to protect our freedom to shape the laws that govern us — especially through ballot initiatives. Together, we can fight against the anti-democracy initiatives that threaten our livelihoods and work to build a democracy rooted in equity and justice, where all people are treated with dignity and thrive.

For more information on our analysis or to schedule an interview with one of our policy experts, please email [email protected].