Ballots list a bumper-sticker crop of 237 questions in 42 states
Not since the Depression had Americans used the mechanisms of initiative and referendum, those venerable tools of direct democracy, in greater numbers or with wider impact. From cracking down on crime to denying electroshock therapy in Berkeley, Calif., there were 237 statewide ballot measures in 42 states and the District of Columbia. California fielded the most, a bumper-sticker crop of 15.
Unlike the spate of ballot measures in 1980, this year's proposals raised issues that were somewhat more liberal than conservative in intent. The...
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