Ballotpedia:Our approach to calculating initiative signature petition costs

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This page describes Ballotpedia's approach to covering initiative signature petition costs.

Guiding principles

Ballotpedia tracks the cost of signature gathering for all statewide citizen-initiated measures that qualify for the ballot. We track the total cost of any successful signature petition effort and calculate the cost per required signature. Ballotpedia primarily uses official state campaign finance reports whenever possible. In some cases, Ballotpedia uses direct statements from campaigns to supplement or clarify state campaign finance reports. Ballotpedia does not use third-party reporting on signature petition costs unless the information can be verified through official campaign finance reports or through direct statements from the campaigns.

Ballotpedia maintains a page on petition costs: Ballot measures cost per required signatures analysis

Ballotpedia also publishes an annual data and analysis page: Ballot measure signature costs, YEAR

E.g., Ballot measure signature costs, 2020

Specific policies

Sources and methodology

Ballotpedia uses state-published campaign finance systems to access campaign finance reports from committees sponsoring each certified statewide citizen-initiated measure. The campaign finance reporting systems and campaign finance reporting rules for each state vary. If the sponsors of a petition are not required to submit campaign finance reports, direct outreach to the campaign is attempted by Ballotpedia staff.

Determing which expenditures to count

In certain states, committees backing signature petition drives are required to indicate all expenditures used for signature gathering. In other states, committees are required to report the purpose of expenditures, but without required codes or categories. Below are the factors used by Ballotpedia to determine if an expenditure should go toward the total signature costs for a specific petition:

  • State system codes or categories
  • The expenditure recipient
    • If the recipient is a company that exclusively manages petition drives, all expenditures might be counted, while if the recipient is a company that provides petition drive management as a service among other services, further factors are considered.
  • The date range of expenditures
  • Statements by the campaign

Committees sponsoring multiple initiatives

In some cases, a committee or sponsoring group might be funding signature drives for two different initiatives or veto referendums. In these cases, it is usually impossible to distinguish between expenditures for one signature drive from those for another. In these cases, Ballotpedia counts the total cost for all of the measures divided by the number of measures as the individual total costs and to calculate the cost per required signatures.

See also

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Geoff Pallay, Director of Editorial Content and Editor-in-Chief • Ken Carbullido, Vice President of Election Product and Technology Strategy • Daniel Anderson, Managing Editor • Ryan Byrne, Managing Editor • Cory Eucalitto, Managing Editor • Mandy Gillip, Managing Editor • Doug Kronaizl, Local Elections Project Manager • Jaclyn Beran • Marielle Bricker • Joseph Brusgard • Emma Burlingame • Kelly Coyle • Thomas Ellis • Nicole Fisher • Brianna Galatioto • Joseph Greaney • Thomas Grobben • Jaime Healy-Plotkin • Tyler King • Glorie Martinez • Roneka Matheny • Nathan Maxwell • Ellie Mikus • Jackie Mitchell • Ellen Morrissey • Mackenzie Murphy • Kaley Platek • Samantha Post • Adam Powell • Ethan Rice • Spencer Richardson • Victoria Rose • Briana Ryan • Myj Saintyl • Maddy Salucka • Maddie Sinclair Johnson • Abbey Smith • Janie Valentine • Joel Williams • Samuel Wonacott • Trenton Woodcox • Mercedes Yanora
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