Washington
entered the United States as a territory in 1853 and was admitted as the 42nd state on November 11, 1889. The
Constitution of Washington, which had itself been approved by a vote of the people, laid out the first guidelines for ballot measures. Article XXIII, Section 1 dictated that constitutional amendments required passing by a two-thirds vote in the
state legislature and being approved by a majority of voters in the next general election. This section also required that details of the amendment should be published in newspapers across the state before election day. In 1912, Constitutional Amendment Article II, Sec. 1 passed. This amendment granted people the power to place measures on the ballot every election via petition. For one of these measures to be valid, it needed signatures of support from at least eight percent of the voting population, based on turnout from the previous election. The passage of
Initiative Measure 1000 (the "Death with Dignity Act") in 2008 made Washington the second state in the nation to legalize
assisted suicide. The following year, voters approved
Referendum Measure 71, which marked the first time voters had expanded recognition of queer relationships at the ballot box. In 2012,
Referendum Measure 74 passed, making Washington the ninth state to recognize same-sex marriage and the third to do so by popular vote. That same year, the passage of
Initiative Measure 502 led to Washington becoming the first state to fully legalize marijuana for recreational use. While state law on signature gathering includes a recommendation that organizers should not be paid to gather signatures, the practice of paying workers per signature gathered has been legal in Washington since 1994. Supporters of the practice claim that it allows campaigns to extend their reach and makes ballot access more accessible and point to measures that have passed with widespread public support as evidence. The practice has been criticized for potentially allowing campaigns to "buy their way onto the ballot", most notably by former Secretary of State
Ralph Munro. Some paid signature gatherers have been arrested on charges of forgery and election fraud for placing fake signatures on petitions. Since sponsoring his first measure in 1997,
Tim Eyman has been the most prolific sponsor of initiatives and referendums in the state. He has had 17 initiatives placed on the ballot as of 2021, with 11 being approved. Of those, only two have not since been overturned or modified by the courts. Eyman's 2007 Initiative Measure 960 passed with 51% of the vote and created a new system of "advisory votes" for all tax increases passed by the legislature in Washington. While most of this initiative was overturned by the Washington Supreme Court in 2013, this system still stands. Advisory votes are not legally binding and exist solely to measure public approval, as such, they are not considered to be ballot measures. == Types of ballot measures ==