From ending the use of the MCAS to legalizing psychedelic mental health treatments, special interest groups are positioning themselves to offer ballot questions on proposed laws ahead of the 2024 election and an initial August deadline.

Groups have lined up behind some of the most debated topics on Beacon Hill over the past few sessions, including the rights and status of workers, government accountability and transparency, debt-free higher education, and increasing the minimum wage.

One firm is eyeing a potential run at election reforms.

Partners in Democracy, which is headed up by former Democratic gubernatorial candidate Danielle Allen and pitches itself as a “democracy renovation movement,” is weighing questions around same-day voter registration, simplifying the process for getting on the ballot, and updating the state’s primary process.

The group has met with voters and policymakers “for months” to identify ways to improve the state’s current elections process, said John Griffin, the organization’s managing partner for strategy.

Griffin said the group is also looking at campaign finance reforms to limit the influence of foreign money in elections and addressing the “low level of competitiveness” in local contests.

Partners in Democracy said it is debating a proposal that would put in place a “Top Five” elections system, which would use a single nonpartisan preliminary election where candidates from all parties, including independents, run on one ballot. The top five candidates would move on to the general election.

“We’re planning to file proposals addressing each of these issues, and will be exploring the best timing and pathway forward to passing them once they’ve been evaluated by the attorney general,” Griffin said.

The group’s ballot question committee has already spent $25,000 with the Boston-based law firm Verrill for “drafting of potential language for ballot measure [and] general advice,” according to the state’s campaign finance office.

Northwind Strategies, a Boston-based political consulting firm, has also stepped into the ballot question realm though it is unclear who their client is. The firm filed paperwork for the “Committee for Transparent Democracy” and lists its founding partner, Doug Rubin, as chair.

Rubin, who worked as chief of staff for former Gov. Deval Patrick and on a lengthy list of campaigns including that of Sen. Elizabeth Warren, declined to comment on the status of a ballot question.

Paperwork filed with the state said the committee is looking to “support policies and issues that make government more transparent and accountable.” Rubin has recently done work for Auditor Diana DiZoglio, who is battling with the Legislature over transparency and accountability on Beacon Hill.

Advocates must submit the text of their ballot questions to Attorney General Andrea Campbell’s office by 5 p.m. Wednesday for review. If Campbell greenlights them, supporters need to collect nearly 75,000 signatures from certified Massachusetts voters by mid-November.

Fourteen proposed laws and one constitutional amendment had been filed with the attorney general’s office as of early Friday. Seven were shot down by the office in September, five were certified, and a handful were awaiting action. More were expected to be filed on Friday.

Raise Up Massachusetts is also among the ballot question committees that have filed paperwork with the state’s campaign finance office. The coalition has filed as a ballot question committee every year since it came together in 2013.

And this year, it’s looking to tackle an increase to the state’s minimum wage, which bumped up to $15 an hour at the start of the year as part of a deal hammered out between former Gov. Charlie Baker, former House Speaker Robert DeLeo, and Senate President Karen Spilka in 2018.

Raise Up spokesman Andrew Farnitano said the coalition’s latest iteration of the ballot question committee was “formed for the purpose of building shared prosperity in the commonwealth through higher minimum wages and fair and adequate taxation.”

“Raise Up Massachusetts is working to increase the minimum wage because the low-wage workers who make our economy work need higher wages to keep up with record-breaking inflation, deal with the high cost of living in Massachusetts, and rise out of poverty,” Farnitano told the Herald.

The Massachusetts for Mental Health Options committee said it is looking to promote a policy that would give adults in Massachusetts access to “regulated psychedelic therapy and remove criminal penalties for personal possession of these medicines.”

“Importantly, this is not for retail sales and not for take home,” said Ben Unger, who works for New Approach, a group that successfully pushed through questions on psychedelic treatments in Colorado and Oregon.

The Massachusetts Teachers Association filed a ballot question awaiting a decision from Campbell that would end the use of the MCAS. Another union, 32BJ SEIU, is also eyeing a potential question.

“As 2024 is expected to be a busy year for ballot initiatives in Massachusetts, 32BJ has filed paperwork to form a committee so we can have the ability to defend worker’s rights in this arena if necessary,” said Roxana Rivera, head of 32BJ SEIU in Massachusetts.

Other questions filed with the attorney general’s office covered the suspension of the state’s gas tax — a topic that generated significant debate last summer — and zero-emission vehicles, zero-emission home heating systems, and home solar powered electricy.