The U.S. state of Washington has had a system of direct voting since gaining statehood in 1889. Citizens and the state legislature both have the ability to place new legislation, or legislation recently passed by the state legislature, on the ballot for a popular vote. Washington has three types of ballot measures that can be voted on in a general election: initiatives, referendums, and legislatively referred constitutional amendments. In order to be placed on the ballot, supporters of a measure must gather signatures from registered voters.^[1] From 1898 to 1912, the only ballot measures allowed were legislatively referred constitutional amendments. In 1912, an amendment successfully passed to create a citizen-led process for initiatives and referendums, and the first successful initiative was passed in 1914.^[2]

Since adopting this process, ballot measures have become widely accepted as part of Washington's electoral system. As of 2020,^[update] over 2,000 different initiatives had been filed with the state, along with a significantly smaller number of referendums.^[3][4][5][6] Of those, only a fraction have received the required signatures to be placed on the ballot.^[2] In recent years, ballot measures have been used to legalize politically contentious policies such as assisted suicide, same-sex marriage, and marijuana use.^[7][8][9] The use of signature gatherers (workers paid to gather signatures for ballot measures) has attracted significant controversy in the state, as has some activists' aggressive approach to ballot measures.^[10][11]

Washington entered the United States as a territory in 1853 and was admitted as the 42nd state on November 11, 1889.^[12] 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.^[13]

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.^[13] Initiatives allowed people to propose new laws and referendums allowed people to challenge laws passed by the legislature. This system of "direct legislation" had previously been implemented in Oregon by William Simon U'Ren. In the time since this amendment's passage, initiatives and referendums have become a prominent piece of Washington's electoral landscape.^[2]

The prominence of ballot measures, especially citizen-submitted ones, has allowed Washington to lead the nation in social issues. In 1910, people approved an amendment granting women the right to vote, making Washington the fifth state to guarantee women's suffrage.^[14] 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.^[7] The following year, voters approved Referendum Measure 71, which marked the first time voters had expanded recognition of queer relationships at the ballot box.^[15] 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.^[8] That same year, the passage of Initiative Measure 502 led to Washington becoming the first state to fully legalize marijuana for recreational use.^[9]

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.^[16] 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.^[17][10] Some paid signature gatherers have been arrested on charges of forgery and election fraud for placing fake signatures on petitions.^[18][19]

Since sponsoring his first measure in 1997, Tim Eyman has been the most prolific sponsor of initiatives and referendums in the state.^[20] 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.^[11][21] 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.^[22][23]

• Law of Washington (state)