Many new referendums in the States, some attracting a lot of money?

     Many ballot measures  occurred in USA recently.  But, does spending money on them  buy success?   The Economist magazine in its Nov. 15 edition recounts the results in over a dozen recent campaigns in the States. In Colorado, a campaign to replace that state's flat income tax, with a"tiered" system, to try to raise  a lot of money for education purposes, apparently attracted over $10 million in support, some 300 times that spent by the other side, - but won over only a third of the voters.
     At a  suburb of Seattle, voters approved a $15.00 per hour minimum wage, and a similar vote succeeded in New Jersey. Bans on fracking were passed in 3 cities in Colorado and one in Ohio; but others turned down such proposals. Cincinnati turned down an initiative to replace city workers' defined-benefit pensions. In Colorado, having voted in favour of legalizing marijuana two years ago, the voters voted to tax sales of it. Similar marijuana favoured laws were passed in Maine and three cities in Michigan; and though  7 casinos were approved in New York State, two such proposals flopped in Massachusetts; while those in favour of weak beer cheered a result in Utah, where voters approved the sale of drinks there containing no more than 3.2% of alcohol.
     Such a lot of citizen-voting on issues in the U.S. states. And in our provinces? Do we citizens  have any real  say in anything?