This year Attorney General Andrea Campbell certified a record breaking 44 ballot initiative petitions proposed for the 2026 ballot. We have narrowed this list to five initiatives that are considered the highest priority for the progressive activists we surveyed.
The path to get an initiative on the ballot is by no means easy. In order to make it onto next year's ballot, proponents must collect and certify 74,574 signatures supporting the measure. (Many campaigners are aiming for 100,000 signatures, though, to be safe.)
These signatures must be submitted to local election offices for certification by no later than November 19th. Once they have been certified, signatures must then be filed with the Secretary of State's Election Division by December 3. There is not a moment to waste, so sign up today to volunteer with one or more of the campaigns we have highlighted below.
Why Do Ballot Initiatives Matter?
Before diving into specific measures, let's first talk about why ballot initiatives are so important, especially in our current political climate.
First you need to grasp how shockingly dysfunctional our State House is. According to a 2023 study by Fiscal Note, the Massachusetts State House is the least productive in the country. Despite introducing the 3rd most bills of any state legislature, Massachusetts ranked dead last in the number of bills enacted into law. Only 0.2% of bills introduced to the statehouse managed to pass in 2023. In contrast, Colorado legislators passed approximately 78% of the bills they introduced that same year.
These numbers are particularly shameful considering that Democrats have a trifecta, meaning that they controlled both chambers of the state legislature and the governorship. Not only that, our state legislature has the third largest Democratic supermajority in the country. Yet out of the roughly 10,500 bills introduced during the 2023-2024 legislative season, only 89 bills were enacted into law in 2023 and 407 were enacted in 2024.
Because our legislators are so utterly ineffective at getting laws passed, ballot initiatives are a vital way of getting popular laws passed. They are the only recourse for voters when their legislators refuse to do their jobs or when they prioritize their interests above those of their constituents.
Ballot Initiatives To Support
Now that you understand the stakes, here are the ballot initiatives we recommend supporting:
