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Direct Democracy

Big Money Pours Millions Into Ballot Initiative Battles

Dismal voter turnout in 2014 has lowered the threshold for getting measures onto ballots this year.
Workers clean up and check plant tags after transplanting marijuana plants to grow in a greenhouse at the Los Suenos Farms facility in Avondale, Colorado, on Feb. 25, 2016.

Workers clean up and check plant tags after transplanting marijuana plants to grow in a greenhouse at the Los Suenos Farms facility in Avondale, Colorado, on Feb. 25, 2016.

Photographer: Matthew Staver/Bloomberg
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2016 is shaping up to be a big year for ballot initiatives. 

Political groups have already raised more than $125 million so far to get issues directly before voters, a Bloomberg analysis of state campaign finance data shows. That's a 74 percent increase from what was raised for initiatives at the same point in the 2014 election cycle.