When citizens circulate petitions to gather signatures to put a policy question on the ballot, it is called a(n)?

When citizens circulate petitions and gather a required minimum number of signatures to put a policy question on a ballot it is called an initiative. Twenty-one states allow their legislatures to put referenda before the voters and give their citizens the right to place initiatives on the ballot. Five other states provide for one mechanism or the other. Eighteen states also allow the recall of state officials a means of forcing a special election for an up or down on a sitting governor or state judge. Like initiative a specified percentage of registered voters must sign a petition asking that a vote be held.