My answer doesn't answer the question! Oooopppps! If you want to know the answer, please see Schlim's contribution. I was going to try to delete this answer, but I think the info is still useful, so I left it alone. I was suffering from a rectal-cranial inversion and decided to answer how a bill becomes a law. If you're interested, then please read the following excerpt from: http://legis.state.va.us/CitizensGuide/HowBillsBecomeLaws.htm Here is a step by step guide to how laws are made: A Delegate or Senator has an idea for a bill, usually from a constituent (a citizen living within his/her jurisdication). The Delegate/Senator presents the idea to the Division of Legislative Services and requests that it be drafted into a bill. The bill is signed by the patron, introduced, and printed. The bill is referred to an appropriate committee. The members of the committee consider the bill and decide what action to take. This is when the public may speak. First Reading: The bill title is printed in the Calendar or is read by the Clerk, and the bill advances to second reading. Second Reading: The next day the bill title appears in the printed Calendar on second reading. Bills are considered in the order in which they appear on the Calendar. The Clerk reads the title of the bill a second time. A bill on second reading is amendable and debatable. A bill that has passed second reading with or without an amendment is engrossed. If an amendment is adopted, the bill is reprinted in its final form for passage. Third Reading: The next day, the engrossed bill title appears in the Calendar on third reading. The title is read a third time by the Clerk. By recorded vote, the bill is passed or failed. Communication: When passed, the bill is sent to the other body, either by the Clerk in a written communication or by a member in person, informing the other body that the bill has passed. In the other body: The bill goes through essentially the same procedure as it did in the house of origin. The bill title is printed in the Calendar or is read by the Clerk. The bill is referred to a standing committee, considered, and reported by the committee. The title is read a second and a third time before passage. Committee of Conference: If the House amends a Senate bill, or the Senate amends a House bill, and the house of origin disagrees with the amendment, a conference committee, usually three members from each legislative body, may be formed to resolve differences. Enrollment: After being passed by both houses of the General Assembly, the bill is printed as an enrolled bill, examined, and signed by the presiding officer of each chamber. Governor: The bill is then sent to the Governor for his approval. After being signed by the Governor, the bill is sent to the Clerk of the House (Keeper of the Rolls of the Commonwealth) and is assigned a chapter number. All chapters of a session are compiled and bound as the Acts of Assembly. Bills that become law at a regular session (or the reconvened session that follows) are effective the first day of July following adjournment of the regular session unless otherwise specified. - http://legis.state.va.us/CitizensGuide/HowBillsBecomeLaws.htm Whew! It takes a lot for an idea to become law!

You, a simple citizen, can write a law and get it enacted in many states through a referendum. First, you need to get a certain amount of signatures on a petition or pay a certain amount of money to get your law on the ballot (these amounts vary by state). Once your bill is on the ballot, if a majority of the state votes yes, then your proposal will become a law (assuming it doesn't violate the constitution). Scymitar72 gives a great description of how a legislative bill gets passed, but this would not be a law by a simple citizen. Legislators, committees, and the government almost always amend legislative bills and often add riders to get more legislators to vote on the bill. The end product is a law written by the government, even if the simple citizen wrote the first version of the bill. Referendum is the process for citizens to pass laws.

Citizens can make laws through Direct Democracy. Here are a couple types. Most people are interested in the second. I found the following information in wikipedia and Glendale Community College (AZ) websites. This answer involves a bunch of legal stuff, so yes, I copy and pasted. #1 Constitutional amendment initiative: the most powerful citizen-initiated, direct democracy governance component. It is a constitutionally-defined petition process of "proposed constitutional law," which, if successful, results in its provisions being written directly into the state's constitution. Since constitutional law cannot be altered by state legislatures, this direct democracy component gives the people an automatic superiority and sovereignty, over representative government (Magelby, 1984). It is utilized at the state level in eighteen states: Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Florida, Illinois, Massachusetts, Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon and South Dakota (Cronin, 1989). Among the eighteen states, there are three main types of the constitutional amendment initiative, with different degrees of involvement of the state legislature distinguishing between the types (Zimmerman, December 1999). (wikipedia) #2 Statute law initiative: a constitutionally-defined, citizen-initiated, petition process of "proposed statute law," which, if successful, results in law being written directly into the state's statutes. The statute initiative is used at the state level in twenty-one states: Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Idaho, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, South Dakota, Utah, Washington and Wyoming (Cronin, 1989). Note that, in Utah, there is no constitutional provision for citizen lawmaking. All of Utah's I&R law is in the state statutes (Zimmerman, December 1999). In most states, there is no special protection for citizen-made statutes; the legislature can begin to amend them immediately.(wikipedia) The procedure and requirements to get a petition on the ballot does vary some from state to state. Here is a breif decription of Arizona's direct democracy procedures. Constitutional initiative • Allows citizens to write and enact constitutional measures • Needs petition signed by 15%* to get on ballot (gccaz.edu) Statutory initiative • Allows citizens to write and enact ordinary laws • Needs petition signed by 10%* to get on ballot (gccaz.edu) * Percent of the number of people that voted for governor in last election. (gccaz.edu) wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Direct_democracy gccaz.edu, http://web.gccaz.edu/~tmcclory/Factsheets/Factsheet_AZDirectDem.pdf