1. Ballotpedia’s year-end analysis of 2019’s statewide ballot measures
2. Filing deadline roundup
3. Tomorrow - seven candidates for the sixth debate

Ballotpedia’s year-end analysis of 2019’s statewide ballot measures

Voters decided 36 statewide ballot measures in eight states in 2019. Of those, four were decided during elections held before November and 32 measures were on ballots on Nov. 5 in seven states. The average number of statewide measures on the ballot in odd-numbered years from 2009 through 2017 was between 30 and 31.

Twenty-two statewide measures were approved and 14 were defeated. Pennsylvania voters approved the Marsy's Law Crime Victims Rights Amendment—74% to 26%—but certification of the results is blocked pending a state court ruling.

Ballotpedia’s Ballot Measures team analyzed this year’s statewide measures in a year-end report. Here are five highlights that caught my attention: 

• State legislatures referred 22 measures to the ballot. Of those, voters approved 18 and rejected four.

• Two citizen-initiated measures on the ballot—one initiative and one veto referendum—both in Washington. The initiative was approved and the veto referendum was rejected, which was the result sought by the measure's sponsors in each case.

• There were more statewide measures in 2019 than in any odd-numbered year since 2007, largely due to the record number of advisory questions in Washington. The number of binding statewide measures—24—was approximately equal to the average since 2013 and well below the average over the last few decades.

• Ballot measure support and opposition campaigns raised about $28.04 million. Most of the contributions—94.1%—were for measures in three states: Colorado, Pennsylvania, and Washington.

• The campaign with the highest cost per vote (CPV) in 2019 was the support campaign for Colorado Proposition CC, a measure to allow the state to retain revenue above the state spending cap to provide funding for transportation and education. Supporters spent $6.41 for every vote in favor of the measure. It was defeated, 54% to 46%.

There are even more interesting facts about this year’s ballot measure campaigns in the full analysis, including historical data, a breakdown of campaign contributions, and information about ballot measure readability. Click the link below to learn more. 

Learn more

       

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Filing deadline roundup 

Candidate filing periods closed this month in three states—California, Illinois, and Texas—and will close in two others this week. We’ve only just begun the long march through the 2020 filing deadline cycle. Each week I’ll keep you updated on what has passed and what is coming ahead. So, join me on the adventure! Without further ado, here are updates from the states with filing deadlines this week:

Ohio

Ohio's statewide filing deadline is today—Dec. 18. The deadline for independent candidates to file to run is March 16, 2020, which is the day before Ohio’s partisan primaries on March 17. Ohio’s statewide filing deadline is the sixth to take place in the 2020 election cycle. 

The offices on the ballot in Ohio include all 16 U.S. House districts, six of 19 members of the state board of education, 16 of 33 state Senate seats, all 99 state House districts, two state Supreme Court justices, 21 intermediate appellate court seats, and local offices. Ballotpedia is covering local elections in Cuyahoga, Franklin, Hamilton, and Lucas counties. 

North Carolina

The candidate filing period for all offices in North Carolina closes on Friday—Dec. 20. The offices up for election include the U.S. Senate seat currently held by Sen. Thom Tillis (R), 10 state executive offices—including the governor, all 13 U.S. House districts, all 50 state Senate seats, all 120 state House districts, three state Supreme Court justices, and five judgeships on the North Carolina Court of Appeals. North Carolina’s primary elections are on March 3. 

North Carolina’s 2020 U.S. House elections will take place under a remedial map state lawmakers adopted in November. The state legislature approved the remedial map along party lines, with all Republicans voting in favor and all Democrats voting against. A state superior court panel had ruled that the previous map—enacted in 2016—was an unconstitutional partisan gerrymander. 

Click the link below to see a full list of 2020 candidate filing deadlines and primary elections.

Tomorrow - seven candidates for the sixth debate

Tomorrow—Dec. 19—is a date that many people have circled on their calendars for some time. The Democratic National Committee is holding its sixth presidential primary debate. Oh, and a certain highly-anticipated movie—Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker—will be released. 

The debate will take place at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles, starting at 8 p.m. ET. PBS NewsHour and Politico are hosting the event which can be viewed on PBS television stations or online at YouTube or politico.com.

Seven Democrats will participate in the debate—Joe Biden, Pete Buttigieg, Amy Klobuchar, Bernie Sanders, Tom Steyer, Elizabeth Warren, and Andrew Yang. Three candidates who participated in the most recent debate on Nov. 20 will be missing—Cory Booker, Tulsi Gabbard, and Kamala Harris, who ended her presidential campaign earlier this month.

The candidates qualified for the debate by meeting both polling and fundraising thresholds as of Dec. 12. A candidate had to receive 4% support or more in at least four national or early state polls or 6% support or more in at least two single state polls to meet the polling criteria. The four early states are Iowa (Feb. 3), New Hampshire (Feb. 11), Nevada (Feb. 22), and South Carolina (Feb. 29). Candidates also had to have 200,000 unique donors and a minimum of 800 donors in at least 20 states.

Of course, much of the country will be heading to theaters to see how episode nine reaches its conclusion. If you need a refresher about who the key figures are in the Star Wars universe, Ballotpedia profiled nine prominent influencers in that galaxy, which you can read more about here. If you’re heading out to see the new movie this weekend—enjoy it! But no spoilers!

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