A statutory initiative seeks to create a new law or amend an existing state or local law. All statewide initiative petitions must be filed with the Secretary of State’s office prior to circulating.

Petition Requirements and Process

• Pursuant to Article 19, Section 2(3) of the Nevada Constitution, statutory initiative petitions to appear before the 2027 Legislature may be filed on or after January 1, 2026.
• To qualify for the ballot, petitioners must obtain the signatures of registered voters that equal at least ten percent (10%) of the voters who voted at the last preceding General Election. Only registered voters of the county and petition district where the petition is circulated may sign the petition.
• If the petition is circulated in more than one county, all documents must be submitted to all counties at the same time.
• The signatures must be gathered in each of the four Petition Districts.
• The last preceding general election for all petitions submitted in 2026 is the 2024 General Election. Therefore, 148,788 valid signatures are required to qualify a petition submitted in 2026. Of the 102,362 signatures, 37,197 must be collected in each of Petition Districts 1, 2, 3 and 4. 
• The last day for petitioners to submit signatures to the counties for verification is November 18, 2026.
• Counties must certify petition sufficiency within 9 working days of submission.
• Qualified statutory initiative petitions go to the Nevada Legislature prior to appearing on the ballot.  If the Legislature approves the initiative, it becomes law.  However, if the Legislature rejects the initiative or fails to take action on the initiative within 40 days, the initiative is presented to the voters at the next general election.

IMPORTANT DATES