Voters take the initiative: voters in 42 states had the opportunity to bypass representative democracy and vote directly on 202 different statewide measures.

• Author: Bowser, Jennifer Drage

There was variety on the ballot this November. Citizens were asked to decide issues ranging from animal rights to health care, taxes to gambling, drug policy to bond measurers. But education was the big winner among the 202 ballot measures, while voters rejected many of the other big-ticket policy ideas put before them by legislatures and fellow citizens.

There were 202 statewide ballot measures. Voters said yes to 123 of them. Forty-nine of the 202, were citizen initiated. Twenty-two of those passed. Four were popular referendum, where citizens had a chance to repeal a measure passed by the legislature. Three passed. The other 149 were measures referred to the voters by legislatures; 98 of those passed.

EDUCATION

Most of the country's 21 education-related ballot issues received voter approval. Among them were California's Proposition 49, sponsored by actor Arnold Schwarzenegger. It mandates more state spending on before- and after-school programs. All three of Florida's education items also passed. They will reduce class sizes, fund preschools and create a new governing board for the state university system.

Efforts to ban bilingual education in favor of one-year English immersion programs passed in Massachusetts, but failed in Colorado. Arizona, Idaho and Tennessee will direct gambling and lottery money to education. Alaska, California, New Mexico, Oregon and Virginia passed bond measures for education projects.

A few education-related measures did fail. North Dakota rejected a plan that would have reimbursed state residents for part of their student loan payments. And voters turned down a tax increase on storage of radioactive waste in Utah to pay for education programs.

TAXES

Voters generally were unsympathetic to both tax cuts and tax increases.

Tax cuts generally failed on Nov. 5, except in Washington, where a measure cutting car license fees passed. Elsewhere, a proposal to repeal taxes on food and medicine in Arkansas and a repeal of the personal income tax in Massachusetts both failed.

Tax increases also were generally voted down. Arizona and Missouri considered raising tobacco taxes. Arizona's passed but Missouri's failed, although the results were quite close. A measure in Oregon that would have increased personal income tax rates and payroll taxes to pay for a comprehensive health care plan failed. A measure in Utah to increase fees and taxes on the disposal and storage of radioactive waste also failed, as did a legislative...