Supporters of initiatives and referendums argue the following points. Initiatives can be used as a threat to spur legislative action.
Initiatives allow all issues to be included on the public agenda.
Initiatives can express popular opinion without the distortions of the legislative process. The reasons are discussed below. High Levels of Knowledge Required of Voters for Informed Decisions Studies have found that many voters skip voting on ballot issues because such questions are either too long or too difficult to understand. This problem for ballot issues was further demonstrated in an attitude survey of voters in Massachusetts in 1976. Researches discovered a difference in understanding an issue depending on whether the issue was worded as a ballot proposition or in general terms.