With three medical marijuana questions and one to raise the state minimum wage on the ballot, as four of six ballot issues on the Missouri ballot in November, the state is expecting a big turnout for the midterm election.
Although the topics of the ballot proposals vary, there is a common thread: a majority of the issues should attract younger and more progressive voters. Are the ballot issues politics at play?
Both parties, nationally and in Missouri, have used ballot measures in the past to try to whip up their base.
In 2004, Missouri Republicans believed their candidates got a boost from a ballot issue banning same sex marriage.
In 2006, November ballot proposals to increase the minimum wage and protect stem cell research were widely seen as helping Democrats – especially Claire McCaskill, who narrowly won her first bid for the U.S. Senate.
In 2010, Republican Roy Blunt’s successful U.S. Senate race received some help from an August victory on a ballot proposal that opposed many of the health-insurance provisions in the federal Affordable Care Act.