Ballot fatigue? Voters have a slew of ballot questions to answer, but not as many as in previous years.

AuthorUnderhill, Wendy
PositionELECTIONS

Voters soon will not only decide who their governors, congressmen and legislators will be, they'll also answer statewide ballot questions that can be summed up with the old saw: something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue.

Some issues are old standbys (taxes, gambling, education). Most are borrowed ideas from neighboring states. As for blue, four measures relate to water quality, and water's blue, right?

So what's new? There are fewer ballot measures than in years past. Voter fatigue may be a factor.

This November, voters will face 137 statewide ballot measures. That's down from an average of 175 for even-numbered years since 2000.

The downturn is reflected in the two most common kinds of ballot measures: initiatives and referenda. This year's total of 38 initiatives--measures placed on the ballot by voter petition in the 24 states that allow it--is lower than any year since at least 1980. In fact, it's not much more than half the average for recent even-year elections. The high-water mark came in 2006, when motivated groups sent 76 initiative questions directly to citizens to decide.

Legislative referenda are down too, with just 90 this year. That compares to 115 in 2012 and 121 in 2010.

Why are the numbers low? The dip may be simply a valley in a naturally occurring peaks-and-valleys oscillation. Or it could be that both lawmakers and citizen groups are responding to voters' frustration over long ballots.

As for initiatives, it could be that the process has become prohibitively expensive and exhausting.

"You have to have a pretty dedicated public following an issue to get it on the ballot and to win these days," says Craig Burnett, a political scientist from North Carolina University at Wilmington.

There is one uptick in ballot measures this year, however, and that is with advisory questions. Thanks to Illinois, there are five of these nonbinding questions that ask voters for their opinions, but don't have the force of law if passed. Voters in the Land of Lincoln will answer questions on the minimum wage, insurance coverage for contraception and a "millionaire tax" to fund education. Why ask voters if their answers don't matter? Some say that these measures are just efforts to get out the vote.

Still Something for Everyone

All politics may be local, but policy debates often are quite similar in statehouses coast to coast. As such, they provide lawmakers everywhere with the best preference polling possible on issues that may be coming soon to a chamber or ballot box near them.

Virtually all the big issues of the day are on a ballot somewhere, even with the lower-than-usual number. The only perennial favorite that's missing is marriage. It's been a rare year since 2000 that something related to the definition of a marriage has not been on a ballot somewhere...

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