From 538: The 21 Ballot Measures We’re Watching This Election

Referenda and Initiatives from across the country.

Texas does not allow either statewide.

- Click here for it.

People who say that the U.S. is a republic and not a democracy apparently haven’t heard of ballot measures. Every year, some states1 allow citizens to bypass their elected representatives and weigh in directly on an issue — bringing policy to the forefront of the campaign in a way it often is not in candidate elections.

After all, it is through ballot measures that we’ve gotten laws that were either too bold or too partisan to pass legislatively, such as Colorado and Washington becoming the first states to legalize recreational marijuana, California restricting undocumented immigrants’ access to public education and health care and five red states expanding Medicaid.2