Direct Democracy in Idaho

Most of what people know about initiatives in Idaho comes from one campaign at a time: the Medicaid expansion vote in 2018, the open primaries measure in 2024, the reproductive rights measure on the November 3, 2026 ballot. Each one teaches a piece. This lesson lays out the whole frame: where the powers come from, how they have been reshaped over a century, and what each tool can and cannot do. The basic overview is in Initiatives and Referendums in the laws course, and the money side is in Ballot Measures and Issue Campaigns in the PACs course. This module goes further on procedure, deadlines and history.

What the constitution reserves

Article III, Section 1 opens by putting "the legislative power of the state" in the Senate and House. Then it takes some of that power back. Its second paragraph says the people reserve the power "to approve or reject at the polls" any act or measure the Legislature passes. That is the referendum. Its third paragraph says the people reserve the power to propose laws and enact them "independent of the legislature," at a general election. That is the initiative.

Both paragraphs carry the same limit: legal voters may use them "under such conditions and in such manner as may be provided by acts of the legislature." The constitution grants the power. The Legislature writes the procedure. Most of the fights covered in this module are about where procedure ends and the power itself begins.

Article VI, Section 6 handles recall in two sentences. Every public officer in Idaho, "excepting the judicial officers," is subject to recall by the voters of the state or of the district that elected the officer, and the Legislature must pass the laws to carry it out. Judges are left out on purpose. The statute that implements recall, Idaho Code 34-1701, lists the offices that can be recalled "and none other." Lesson 2 goes through that list.

What the people cannot do by petition

Idaho has no constitutional initiative. Article III, Section 1 speaks of proposing "laws." Amending the constitution runs only through Article XX, Section 1: an amendment must pass each house of the Legislature by two-thirds of all members, then win a majority of voters at the next general election. So a citizen group that wants a change locked into the constitution has to persuade at least 47 of 70 House members and 24 of 35 senators first. A group that wants a statute can go straight to the voters.

That difference matters in 2026. Two Legislature-referred amendments are on the November 3 ballot next to the one citizen initiative. One of them, House Joint Resolution 4 of 2025, is about initiatives themselves; it comes up below.

1912, and the 21-year wait

On November 5, 1912, Idaho voters approved a batch of constitutional amendments that grew out of the reform movements of that era. The Secretary of State's amendment history records the three that matter here:

1912 measure	Section	What it did	Yes	No	Result
HJR 19	Art. VI, Sec. 6	Recall of any public officer except judicial officers	37,875 (73.8%)	13,469 (26.2%)	Approved
SJR 12	Art. III, Sec. 1	Referendum on acts of the Legislature	43,658 (76.4%)	13,490 (23.6%)	Approved
SJR 13	Art. III, Sec. 1	Initiative: people may propose and enact laws	38,918 (71.9%)	15,195 (28.1%)	Approved

Source: Idaho Secretary of State, Constitutional Amendment History 1892 to 1918.

Approval did not make the powers usable. The constitution left the "manner" to the Legislature, and for two decades the Legislature supplied none that worked. The Idaho Supreme Court's account in Reclaim Idaho v. Denney (2021) says the 1915 Legislature passed an enabling act so restrictive that Governor Moses Alexander vetoed it, and the power then sat unused for another 18 years. The Secretary of State's initiative history puts it plainly: it took 21 years, and the working procedures came from the 1933 Legislature. Every section of today's Chapter 18 that dates to 1933 carries "added 1933, ch. 210" in its history note.

The 1933 law was simple by today's standards. According to the 2021 opinion, a measure qualified with signatures equal to 10 percent of the votes cast for governor at the last election, with no requirement about where in the state those signers lived. That law stood for 64 years.

The rules since 1997

Since 1997 the Legislature has rewritten the signature rules several times, and courts have struck some of the rewrites.

• 1997. The base changed to 6 percent of registered voters, and for the first time signatures had to be spread out: 6 percent in at least 22 of Idaho's 44 counties.
• 2003. The Ninth Circuit struck the county rule in Idaho Coalition United for Bears v. Cenarrusa, 342 F.3d 1073, because counties differ so much in population that the rule weighed some voters far more than others. The 2021 opinion describes the holding as a violation of equal protection and "one person, one vote."
• 2013. The Legislature switched to legislative districts, which have nearly equal populations: 6 percent of voters in each of at least 18 of the 35 districts, plus 6 percent statewide.
• 2021. Senate Bill 1110, signed April 17, 2021, raised the district rule to all 35 districts. In Reclaim Idaho v. Denney, decided August 23, 2021, the Idaho Supreme Court held that the initiative and referendum are fundamental rights, applied strict scrutiny, struck the 35-district rule and restored the 18-district version. The court also struck the rule that a voter-passed initiative could take effect no earlier than July 1 of the following year.

One trap for readers of the statute books: the official text of Idaho Code 34-1805(2) still prints the SB 1110 wording ("in each of the thirty-five (35) legislative districts"), and 34-1813(2)(a) still prints the July 1 rule. Courts strike laws; they do not edit the code. The Secretary of State applies the court's ruling: its initiatives page states the requirement as 6 percent of registered voters statewide plus 6 percent in at least 18 legislative districts. Lesson 4 works through the math.

Three tools, side by side

	Initiative	Referendum	Recall
What it does	Voters enact a new statute (or ordinance)	Voters approve or reject a law already passed	Voters decide whether an officer leaves office early
Constitution	Art. III, Sec. 1	Art. III, Sec. 1	Art. VI, Sec. 6
Statute	Title 34, Ch. 18	Title 34, Ch. 18 (34-1803)	Title 34, Ch. 17
Statewide signatures	6% of registered voters statewide and 6% in 18 of 35 districts	Same distribution rule	20% of electors registered at the last general election for governor
Time to gather	18 months from receiving the ballot title and fiscal impact statement, or April 30 of the election year, whichever is earlier	Petition filed within 60 days after the Legislature adjourns	75 days from approval of the petition's form
When voted	November general election in even years (statewide)	Next biennial general election	A May or November election date under 34-106
To win	Majority of votes cast on the measure	Law takes effect only if approved by a majority	Majority for recall, and yes votes at least equal to the votes the officer got when elected
Lessons here	4, 6 to 9	5	2 and 3

Two of those rows need a word. The referendum timing in 34-1803 runs from final adjournment of the session that passed the bill, and the effect of a referendum on a law already in force, along with the long-running argument over emergency clauses, is in lesson 5. The recall vote test in 34-1712(3) is a double test unusual among states, explained with arithmetic in lesson 3.

Statewide and local

The constitution speaks of acts of "the legislature." Local direct democracy rests on statutes, and the statutes are newer than most people assume.

Level	Statute and year	Signature threshold	Election date	Excluded
State	34-1801A to 34-1823 (1933, much amended)	6% statewide and in 18 districts	Even-year November general	Constitutional amendments
City	34-1801B (2015)	20% of qualified electors voting in the last November general city election	Odd-year November	Bond elections; zoning legislation
County	34-1801C (2018)	20% of qualified electors voting in the last November even-year general county election	Nearest date allowed by 34-106(8)	Bond elections; zoning legislation
Fire protection and ambulance service districts	34-1801D (2026)	20% of qualified electors voting in the most recent November odd-year district election	Odd-year November	Anything other than raising or lowering the property tax budget; bonds
Recall, all levels	34-1701 to 34-1715 (1972)	20% of registered electors (50% of votes cast for special districts)	May or November under 34-106	Judicial officers

Before 2015, Idaho cities wrote their own initiative procedures, and the rules varied from city to city. 34-1801B(20) voided all city initiative ordinances on July 1, 2015, and 34-1801C did the same for counties on July 1, 2018. Today each city and county must allow initiative and referendum and must follow the state chapter, with the city attorney or county prosecutor doing the Attorney General's job and the city or county clerk doing the Secretary of State's.

The 2026 addition is narrow. House Bill 959, signed April 10, 2026, raised the cap on property tax growth for fire protection and ambulance service districts and created an initiative that lets voters raise or lower those districts' property tax budgets. Its statement of purpose says passage takes the same two-thirds vote the law already requires for a budget increase beyond statutory limits; the statute itself points to 63-802(1)(h). Local measures, the subject-matter limits and the court cases on what local voters may enact are in lesson 6. School bonds and levies are a different animal altogether, put on the ballot by school boards; see the school boards course.

What the Legislature may do with a law the voters passed

An Idaho initiative creates an ordinary statute. Nothing in Article III, Section 1 protects it from later change, and Idaho has no rule, as some states do, that a voter-passed law can only be amended by a supermajority or after a waiting period. The Legislature can amend it or repeal it in the next session with a simple majority, subject to the governor's veto like any bill. The Reclaim Idaho majority said so directly while rejecting the argument that rural voters needed SB 1110's protection: the Legislature "still possesses the authority to repeal initiatives once passed."

The case shows the full cycle: an initiative enacts a law, the Legislature repeals it over a veto, citizens refer the repeal to the ballot, and the voters decide. It also shows that a referendum reached a law with an emergency clause, a point lesson 5 picks up. The best-known later case is Proposition 2 of 2018, the Medicaid expansion initiative, adopted with 365,107 votes (60.6 percent). In 2019 the Legislature passed Senate Bill 1204, signed April 9, 2019, adding conditions to the program. The details are in lesson 5.

No veto over voters

Article IV, Section 10 requires "every bill passed by the legislature" to go to the governor. An initiative is not a bill passed by the Legislature, so the governor neither signs nor vetoes it. A 2025 bill, House Bill 85, would have made voter-passed initiatives subject to the governor's signature or veto. Its statement of purpose argued that because the initiative power is "essentially coextensive" with the Legislature's, presentment should apply too. The bill was printed and sent to House State Affairs on January 31, 2025 and went no further.

Proposals to change the process

Bills to change initiative rules come up nearly every session. Some pass, most do not, and one passed bill was struck in court. This table covers the main proposals from 2019 through 2026, with their fate verified on the Legislature's bill pages.

Year	Bill	What it proposed	What happened
2019	S 1159	As passed (amended version): 10% of registered voters in 32 of 35 districts, 180 days to gather, a single-subject rule, a fiscal impact statement, a funding source and a July 1 effective date. A trailer bill, H 296, would have changed it to 270 days and two-thirds of the districts	S 1159 passed Senate 18 to 17 and House 40 to 30; vetoed April 5, 2019. H 296 vetoed April 9, 2019
2021	S 1110	6% in all 35 legislative districts	Signed April 17, 2021; struck in Reclaim Idaho v. Denney, August 23, 2021
2024	S 1377	Paid circulators must say they are paid, name the payer on each page and wear a "paid petition circulator" badge	Law, Chapter 285, effective July 1, 2024 (now 34-1807(2))
2024	H 652	Monthly signature submission and a 90-day verification period	Passed House 49 to 20; held in Senate State Affairs
2025	H 2	Raise the vote needed to pass a statewide initiative from 50 to 60 percent	Referred to House State Affairs January 9, 2025; no further action
2025	H 85	Governor's veto over voter-passed initiatives	Referred to House State Affairs; no further action
2025	SJR 101	Constitutional amendment requiring 6% in every legislative district	Sent to the amending order February 12, 2025; recommitted to committee March 27
2025	S 1117	Final, updated fiscal impact statement for qualified measures; later deadlines for pamphlet arguments	Law, Chapter 305, effective July 1, 2025
2025	HJR 4	Constitutional amendment: only the Legislature may legalize marijuana, narcotics or other psychoactive substances	Adopted 58 to 10 in the House and 29 to 6 in the Senate; on the November 3, 2026 ballot
2026	H 959	New initiative for fire and ambulance district property tax budgets	Law, Chapter 316, signed April 10, 2026

HJR 4 is the first proposal in years that would carve a subject out of the initiative power itself. Its text adds a new subsection to Article III, Section 26 saying that, effective on adoption, "only the legislature" may legalize those substances. The 2026 voter pamphlet prints the Legislature's statement for it, which argues these decisions should go through public hearings and recorded legislative votes, and the statement against it, which argues the people are as able as legislators to make drug policy and that the Legislature can already amend or repeal a poorly drafted initiative. Both arguments touch the question this lesson opened with: how much of the lawmaking power the people kept for themselves in 1912. Whatever the outcome on November 3, it will be the voters who decide it, because only voters can ratify a constitutional amendment.

The record so far

Counting from the Secretary of State's initiative history, Idaho voters decided 30 statewide initiatives from 1938 through 2018 and passed 15 of them. They decided 7 referendums in the same period. The current initiatives page adds 2020 (no initiative qualified), 2022 (the Quality Education Act qualified as Proposition 1 and was withdrawn before the vote), 2024 (Proposition 1, top-four primaries and ranked-choice voting, did not pass) and 2026 (the Reproductive Freedom and Privacy Act qualified as Proposition 1; two cannabis measures did not). The list of passed initiatives covers ground any side of politics might claim: the 1938 Fish and Game Commission Act, the 1974 Sunshine Law on campaign money and lobbying, the 1986 state lottery, the 1994 term limits, the 2002 tribal gaming measure and the 2018 Medicaid expansion.

Timeline

Date	Event
Nov. 5, 1912	Voters approve the recall (Art. VI, Sec. 6), referendum and initiative (Art. III, Sec. 1) amendments
1915	Enabling act passed; vetoed by Governor Moses Alexander as too restrictive
1933	Legislature enacts Chapter 18 procedures: 10% of the last vote for governor, no distribution rule
Nov. 3, 1936	Earliest measure in the Secretary of State's table: voters reject the 1935 two percent sales tax by referendum
Nov. 8, 1938	Fish and Game Commission Act initiative adopted with 76 percent
1972	Current recall chapter, 34-1701 and following, enacted
Nov. 5, 1974	Sunshine Law initiative adopted with 77.6 percent
1997	Base becomes 6% of registered voters; 22 of 44 counties required; Chapter 18 adds circulator identification rules
2003	Ninth Circuit strikes the county distribution rule
2013	18 of 35 legislative districts rule enacted
2015 and 2018	Uniform city (34-1801B) and county (34-1801C) initiative procedures
2020	Fiscal impact statements (34-1812) and the July 1 effective-date rule enacted
Aug. 23, 2021	Reclaim Idaho v. Denney strikes SB 1110 and the July 1 rule
July 1, 2024	Paid circulator disclosure and badge rules take effect
July 1, 2025	Final fiscal impact statements and later pamphlet deadlines take effect
2026	Fire and ambulance district initiatives created; HJR 4 and the Reproductive Freedom and Privacy Act on the November 3 ballot