Citizens' Initiative Review

The Citizens’ Initiative Review is an innovative way of publicly evaluating ballot measures so voters have clear, useful, and trustworthy information at election time.

During the Citizens’ Initiative Review, a panel of randomly-selected and demographically-balanced voters is brought together from across the state to fairly evaluate a ballot measure.   The panel hears directly from campaigns for and against the measure and calls upon policy experts during the multi-day public review. For each measure reviewed, a new panel is convened.

At the conclusion of the in-depth review, the panel then drafts a ‘Citizens’ Statement’ highlighting the most important findings about the measure.  Each ‘Citizens’ Statement’ is published as a prominent page in the voters’ pamphlet as a new and easily accessible resource for voters to use at election time.

The CIR was adopted into Oregon law during the 2011 legislative session as the flagship project of our sister organization, Healthy Democracy Oregon, and will continue on as a way to provide voters with high-quality information about initiatives in Oregon.

Our sister 501(c)(3) organization, Healthy Democracy, is working with the new Citizens' Initiative Review Commission (CIRC) to run CIRs for two ballot measures in August 2012. For updates on the 2012 CIRs, visit www.healthydemocracy.org.