The initiative process is not a runaway or out of control process. Since the first statewide initiative appeared on Oregon’s ballot in 1904, citizens in the 24 states with the initiative process have placed approximately 2,021 statewide measures on the ballot and have only adopted 836 (41%). The average number of initiatives on statewide ballots each election cycle since 1904 is 42. The average number of initiatives on the ballot each election cycle between 1981-1990 is 54 and between 1991-2000 the number is 73. Therefore, since 1904 an average of 1.75 initiatives have appeared on each state’s ballot each election cycle (based on the fact that only 24 states have the statewide initiative process). Between 1981-1990 that number is 2.25 and between 1991-2000 the number is 3.04. We define an election cycle as an election that occurs every two years in even numbered years.

Even though 24 states have the statewide initiative process, over 60% of all initiative activity has taken place in just six states — Arizona, California, Colorado, North Dakota, Oregon and Washington.

Additionally, it is important to point out that very few initiatives actually make it to the ballot. In California, according to political scientist Dave McCuan, only 26% of all initiatives filed have made it to the ballot and only 8% of those filed actually were adopted by the voters. During the 2000 election cycle, over 350 initiatives were filed in the 24 initiative states and 76 made the ballot — about 22%.

The initiative process has been through periods of tremendous use as well as periods in which it was rarely utilized. Initiative usage steadily declined from its peak of 293 from 1911-1920 to its low of 87 in 1961-1970. Many factors contributed to this, but the distraction of two World Wars, the Great Depression and the Korean War are largely responsible. However, in 1978, with the passage of California’s Proposition 13, the people began to realize the power of the initiative process once again and its use began to climb. Since 1978, two of the three most prolific decades of initiative use have occurred, 1981-90 (286 initiatives) and 1991- 2000 (389 initiatives). In 1996, considered by scholars to be the "high water mark" for the use of the initiative process, the citizens placed 93 initiatives on statewide ballots and adopted 44 (47%). In contrast, that year, state legislators in those same 24 states adopted over 14,000 laws and resolutions.

Since 1996, the number of initiatives actually making the ballot is remaining constant if not reducing. In 1998, only 61 statewide initiatives actually made the ballot - the lowest in a decade. In 2000 a total of 76 initiatives found their way to statewide ballots, though more than 1998, it is 17 less than appeared on the 1996 ballot and is consistent with the decade average of 73 initiatives per election cycle. These numbers do not support the accusation that there has been a "drastic" increase in initiative usage over the last decade. In 2001 there were only four initiatives on statewide ballots. This number is actually two fewer than the number of initiatives that appeared on the 1991 general election ballot. The reason for the low number in odd numbered election years is that the constitutions of only five states allow initiatives in the odd years — Colorado, Maine, Mississippi, Ohio and Washington State.

The 2002 election cycle continues to show that the use of the initiative process is declining -perhaps showing the success that legislatures have had in restricting the public’s use of the initiative process. On Election Day 2002 voters decided the outcome of 202 statewide ballot measures in 40 states. Of those, 49 were initiatives — a 30% decrease from the 2000 general election and the lowest since 1986.

But what about how the initiative process has been used to change state constitutions. According to "Democratic Delusions: The Initiative Process in America", which was written by Richard Ellis, "The U.S. constitution has been amended 27 times in over two hundred years, whereas the average current state constitution has existed for one hundred years and has been amended about 120 times. Only nineteen states still have their original constitution, and a few states like Georgia and Louisiana have gone through ten or more constitutions. The frequent amending of state constitutions, moreover, is not due solely or even mostly to the initiative process. The longest and most amended constitution belongs to Alabama (220,000 words and over 600 amendments in a hundred years), a state that does not possess the initiative power. California has the second most amended state constitution (493 amendments between 1879 and 1997), but less than one-tenth of those amendments came from citizen initiatives. Every state constitution in the nation has been amended far more often by the legislature than by initiative. Even in Colorado, where over 40 percent of the constitutional amendments submitted to the voters have come through the initiative process, the actual impact of initiatives on the constitution is diminished because the success rate of legislative amendments is so much higher than that of initiated amendments."

Whether or not these trends will continue is hard to predict. The history of the initiative process has shown that there are high use periods as well as low use periods. However, one thing that is for certain — if state lawmakers continue to put more restrictions on the people’s ability to utilize the initiative process there is no doubt that fewer initiatives will be making the ballot.