The process that empowers citizens to place a proposal on the ballot for voter approval is called a (n) :

Answer: Initiative

Explanation:

Initiative is the process that is used by the citizen in which he/she can collect a certain amount of signatures from public to become a holder of ballot. It provides power to any citizen to participate in future election as the member to gain votes from public.

For acquiring the proposal on ballot, the person needs to obtain the certain number of signature that has been decided in advance so that they can be a qualified candidate for being placed on ballot.