Ballotpedia identified 21 states that have enacted laws addressing how legislators, secretaries of state, or other election officials write the question or description of a ballot measure.
New York and North Dakota were the most recent states to do so in 2023. The New York State Legislature passed a law requiring that state ballot measure questions be written in plain language and at no higher than an eighth-grade reading level. A state board is responsible for writing the ballot language in New York.
New York Sen. Leroy Comrie (D-14) wrote in his sponsor memo for the law, “An assessment of the readability of two ballot proposals submitted to the voters on the November 2021 ballot determined that voters needed a college reading comprehension level to understand the proposals. If voters cannot understand the text—or the implications of the question—they cannot participate effectively. The solution is writing ballot questions in plain language.”
