Ballot measures—at least the way they are written—can be so dense that the average U.S. adult needs a graduate-level education to understand exactly what they are voting on, according to a new Ballotpedia study.
As Governing magazine reports, the website assessed the complexity of ballot measures by using readability tests that estimate the level of education needed to understand a document.
Of the 27 measures on ballots in nine states this year, the average question would require a graduate-level education to read and understand, the website found.
Election officials and voting rights experts say complex ballot measures are a problem because the average American adult reads at about a seventh- or eighth-grade level.
What’s more, political scientists from Georgia State University analyzed more than 1,200 ballot measures from 1997 to 2007 and found that voters were more likely to skip complex questions.
