It would also be worthwhile to study where the citizen's initiative referendum came from to begin with.
In some states it's from the same place that voting under the age of 21 arose.
During the Vietnam War, kids were being drafted into the Army at 18 but still not allowed to vote until 21.
Just like it was in World War II only this time they weren't fighting for their country, they were fighting for somebody else's country.
Then along comes Nixon and it was plain to see he was an evil war-monger at heart.
Things got worse as expected, and there was no end in sight since it takes so long to become a powerful politician that the top positions will mostly be the oldest dogs in the race, and therefore by statistics alone the most out-of-touch about things affecting young people that were not a factor in their previous generation.
Fortunately there had been a baby boom so the 21 to 30 age group was bigger than ever at the time, and were largely on the same page as the still-powerless under-21 citizens.
Nixon was doing more damage to US democracy every year, at the same time the war was becoming more widely recognized for its pure stupidity as waves of returning soldiers and officers were able to confirm so with growing consensus.
This built a nationwide unification around lowering the voting age to 18. Even some war hawks could understand the unfairness of continuing to draft kids under 21 when they were still politically powerless. The dogs of war still despised the draft dodgers and their supporters who were constantly pointing this discrepancy out though.
Pressure on legislators eventually won the vote at 18, and while there was momentum plus a new decent size voting block overnight, the push for _Initiative Referendum_ got underway.
Before citizens can put something on the ballot themselves without necessarily having any politicians or political parties involved, their legislators often had to pass a law restoring the right to that type of freedom.
Due to the unprecedented pressure, many states chose to no longer deny this liberty to their people.
They then codified the hurdles that must be overcome for mere citizens to make things right without having to wait for sluggish politicians who may not be interested, or who could act as obstacles until more responsive representatives got into power.
Too bad not every state got this, especially now that it's needed more than ever, but that's what we were planning at the time.
It was plain to see that the 21st century was going to be pretty ugly, but there definitely needed to be some hope.
Texas is not a free state in this regard, remaining more like the Spanish monarchy that ruled when Texas was still a state in Mexico before it joined the USA. The legislature by design still has no provision to quit denying their subjects the full liberty to vote on items of their own initiative.
Oklahoma's lawmakers have presided over a free state by comparison, and their citizens have enjoyed one of the fundamental elements of democracy that Texans can only dream about.