ABSTRACT

This chapter looks at the issues and topics of different direct democracy measures and whether the issues and topics vary across states. Due to the circumstance of the topics, some will facilitate participation, and others will form a barrier to participation; this is a result of the ballot measure complexity and citizen familiarity with these issues. The chapter looks at the ease of issue, to determine if there are issues that voters have a gut response to and do not need to read the entire passage on the ballot. The National Conference of State Legislatures categories are used as crude measures of the subject of the ballot measure, and many are as reported by the state. The primary source for information on individual ballot measures comes from the website of the National Conference of State Legislatures, a bipartisan organization. The topic of ballot propositions can affect participation and perhaps nullify or exacerbate the impact of ballot language, to some extent.