The Washington State Legislature has a bill–Senate Bill 5250–to adopt a CIR. Though it’s unlikely to come up for a vote until 2022, it’s getting a look this year. The League of Women Voters in Washington hosted a discussion on the process last month. Given that the CIR bill in Massachusetts has stalled, Washington State is now in position to be the second state to adopt a CIR....

The Oregon CIR will continue to operate without state funding following the failure to pass Senate Bill 755. For those not in the know, Oregon established the CIR through legislation first in 2009 as a pilot, then in 2011 to set up a Citizens’ Initiative Review Commission that made the CIR a regular part of statewide elections. At the time, Oregon was in a fiscal crisis, so the CIR came without funding. The bill to establish such funding...

The hearing on the bill to establish a CIR in Massachusetts will probably take place this fall (Sept/October, 2019) To see the bill’s progress, click here. Also, the Massachusetts CIR team has a new project site at www.cirmass.org. Research reports on the Mass. pilot CIRs are available for 2018 and 2016....

This podcast interview on the CIR just went live. It’s done by the Scholars Strategy Network, a group that aims to bring scholarly work into the public conversation. It’s 23 mins long. Enjoy!...

South Dakota’s legislature is considering establishing a Citizens’ Initiative Review Commission, but the name is possibly the only family resemblance to the CIR process created in Oregon. House Bill 1007 explains that “the Citizen Initiative Review Commission shall be composed of eleven members appointed by the State Board of Elections.” That includes former and current legislators, with Commission members serving four...

Numerous co-sponsors have lined up behind a 2017 bill authored by Representative Jon Hecht and Bradford Hill to introduce Citizens’ Initiative Review (CIR) in Massachusetts. This follows on the heels of a pilot CIR in Mass., which our research team evaluated in the winter of 2016 (see “Assessment of the 2016 Massachusetts Citizens’ Initiative Review Pilot on Question 4“). Project co-leader John Gastil discussed the 2016 Mass....